Wordless Wednesday

Last Friday Lily insisted her on wearing her cowboy boots...

Happy Wordless Wednesday!!

Take Me Back Tuesday

May 30, 2005

While working at a hotel I received a free pass to Fort Niagara. On Memorial Day my family and 2 co-workers (one of which is my friend whom got married over the weekend) went to Fort Niagara. Then after we went to what I like to call the rocky beach and had a picnic. The beach is located in the State Park where Fort Niagara is. I liked to take Ian there because he could throw rocks without getting in trouble.

You can participate and/or check out other Take Me Back Tuesday posts at A Giveaway Addicted Mommy.

Sunday Citar

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest. ~Irish Proverb

I took these photos at the wedding yesterday. I have many more to share, but I am off to go take the kids to my parents for the week. Must go pack. =D

Welcome to Sunday Citar! This blog quote meme was created by Fresh Mommy. You can stop by her blog to see the quotes and photos that she and everyone else is loving right now.

Berry Fun!

While I am waiting to go get my hair done for the wedding, I thought I would share some photos from last weekend when we went berry picking at Watt Farms. We had never been berry picking here. We have been going apple picking here for the past 4 years. When we went they had u-pick peaches, apricots, cherries & raspberries. We just did raspberries & cherries.

I just have to share...my husband rocks! Last night he went into the basement and grabbed our monitor from our PC and brought it upstairs and plugged my laptop into it. YAY, I can get to my photos (yes, I need to buy an external hard drive). So while I wait for the box to mail my laptop to hp, I can use it. YAY!!! Doing a little happy dance!

Update and Giveaways...

I am having a technical difficulty. The backlight on my good laptop doesn't seem to be working. We will be mailing it back to hp within the next few days. So right now I am on the ancient laptop that is slooooowwww. We have a few busy days coming up. I am in a wedding on Saturday and on Sunday I am dropping my kids at Nana & Papa's in PA for the week. My husband & I are having a staycation without the kids. While the kids are gone I am going to paint my son's room with the free paint I received from glidden.

Here are a couple of great giveaways I found this week...

Mommy and Beyond is giving away two sets of notecards from agoodsigndesign. (ends 7/26)

Bit of Whimsy Designs is having Christmas in July giveaways on her blog. (all ending 7/24)

Wordless Wednesday

I took this photo when we went to the zoo a few weeks ago.
Happy Wordless Wednesday!

I entered this photo of my daughter in a contest. Please go on over here and vote for me, Whimsical Creations. Thanks a bunch!

Take Me Back Tuesday

July 18-28th, 2001

My son was born 5 weeks early 8 years ago. Ian knew he needed to be here. He knew that if he got much bigger in my belly he might not have made it. After I gave birth we found out there not 1, but 2 true KNOTS in the umbilical cord. We were very lucky parents. He was 6lbs 8oz. They let me see & hold him briefly after he was born, but then whisked him away to the NICU. I must say this now, he never had a problem breathing, never needed any meds and was the largest baby in the NICU. But to be on the safe side they wanted to monitor him. I was good with that...until the nightmare began...

(just a warning, I try and keep my blog light and airy...but I also feel the need to share the story behind these photos and how they make me feel.)

First off they never gave me, my family or my son's pediatrician a straight answer on why he was in the NICU or how long we could expect him to be there. Typically a Dr. from the pediatrician's office you choose comes into the hospital in the morning after you give birth. Well, mine never came because he was never called...yes I gave them all the info and they lied and told me they called him when they did not. A nurse (who also takes her children to his office) called his office after I inquired about it. When the pediatrician came to see me, he asked me what was wrong with Ian because there was nothing in his chart and after looking at him he could not find anything wrong. So for 10 days we trekked to the hospital to see Ian. They kept telling us he was having apnea and bradycardia spells. These spells never lasted, never needed intervention, nor did they happen often, nor did I or my family ever witness one. And yes, I was there alot! Not sure if you can see, but there is a tube in my son's nose in a few of the above photos. It was a feeding tube. They said he was eating to slowly (they were timing him) and was tiring himself out. Um....I have had 2 babies and have watched MANY more. I had seen quick eaters, slow eaters and frequent eaters. My son happened to be a slow eater when it came to bottles (I pumped and brought in milk...I happened to have tons of milk). Yep, could have feed 8 babies...found out that from a lactation consultant in the pediatricians office weeks later. Ok, didn't mind the tube so much...but what bothered me is that when I fed him they then pulled the contents up through that tube, measured it and then pushed it back into his tummy. I am not going to go into details about the nurses. There were a couple there that should not be able to speak to people. I do understand that they see mainly really sick babies, they should really learn how to talk to people especially new parents. I am also not going to share my experience with breastfeeding and how they (ppl at the hospital) were not very supportive.
In order to take our son home, my husband, myself and my son had to spend the night in the hospital in a room that looked like a hotel room. My son would be coming home on a breathing monitor that he would stay on 24/7 for at least a month. My mother & I met with the breathing monitor company's rep and they showed us how to put on the monitor. We then watched as they placed the monitor on my son 24 hours before he left the hospital. It would have been fine if they would have put the leads on correctly. They put them on across from each other instead of staggered. NO ONE noticed that it was on INCORRECT. My son was seen by more than one DR. and lots of nurses within that 24hr period. So what happens when you put the leads across from each other?...TONS of false spells!! The first few nights at home with my son were a nightmare. The machine went off all the time and I thought there was really something drastically wrong with my child. I got no sleep and my son got no sleep because I kept waking him up when it would go off. I turned into a fruit cake, thinking my son was going to die. A rep from the monitor company came out and took one look at the leads and knew what was wrong. Within a few days of that, no spells, talking to my pediatrician and a lactation consultant...I called the monitor company and told them to come and pick up the monitor. There was no way I was going to pay money (it was alot, too) to have them read that damn thing....especially after the rep told me the information on it was useless. While I can understand erring on the side of caution...what happened in this hospital was totally uncalled for and left a bad taste in my mouth. Also, I picked my OBGYN because I wanted to deliver my child at that hospital and I also had 2 previous surgeries at that hospital. While I LOVED my OB, she did not deliver anywhere but there. So when I got pregnant with my daughter I found a new OBGYN and gave birth at a different hospital, which was a much better experience.


In the past 8 years my son has meet all of his milestones and has never had any sign of being a preemie. We have joked since then that "I just cook them faster than other people." My daughter was 3 weeks and 1 day early and weighed 7lb 4oz.



If you are still reading, thank you for stopping by this installment of Take Me Back Tuesday. I promise next week will be lighter. =P
I entered this photo in a contest. Please go on over here and vote for me, Whimsical Creations. Thanks a bunch!

You can participate and/or check out other Take Me Back Tuesday posts at A Giveaway Addicted Mommy.

MckLinky's Weekly Blog Hop - wk4

Welcome to MckLinky's Weekly Blog Hop!!

This week the theme is Favorite Recipe or Dish. I have a couple I would like to share...

Baked Potato Soup
I originally shared this here.

Here is how I make my Baked Potato Soup.

• 4 large baking potatoes
• 6 c milk
• 4 green onions (sliced)
• 2/3 c flour
• 2 c cheddar cheese, shredded
• 2/3 c butter
• 12 or so slices bacon, cooked & crumbled
• salt & pepper to taste

Bake potatoes and cool. Peel off skins and dice. Melt butter in heavy saucepan. Add about 2 cups milk to saucepan. Combine half of the flour and 1 cup of milk in shaker. Shake and slowly add to pan. Do the same to the rest of the flour and milk, until all combined. Cook over medium heat until thickened. Make sure to keep stirring so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Add potatoes, onions, cheese, bacon, salt & pepper; cook until thoroughly heated.

Somewhere in the original recipe there was sour cream. The person who gave this to me doesn't like sour cream so she deleted it. It's tasty without it, but feel free to add it if you like.

When I made this for my vegetarian mother I deleted the bacon and then just added it to each individual bowl after dished up. You can also do that with the green onion. This recipe is also very good with ham instead of bacon or add broccoli instead of any meat.

Chicken Wing Dip
I originally shared this here.

4c chopped chicken
12 oz red hot sauce (we love Franks here in Buffalo, it's sooooo yummy)
2- 8oz cream cheese
1c ranch dressing
1c chopped celery
1c monterey jack cheese (put on top...I personally have been mixing it with the rest of the ingredients so there is yummy cheese throughout)

mix all ingredients and bake 30 min on 350.

(photo was taken of a 1/2 batch prior to baking)

I usually make a 1/2 batch for small gatherings. Beware, I made a 1/2 a patch and brought it to a cookout a few years ago (thinking that there would be lots of dips because it was bring a dish to pass thing) and it was gone in 15min.

**I usually serve this with tortilla chips.**

Thanks for hopping by! I love comments, I would love for you to leave a comment so I can check out your blog, too.

I entered this photo in a contest. Please go on over here and vote for me, Whimsical Creations.

Not My Child! Monday

I interrupt the regularly scheduled weekly Not Me! Monday post briefly to bring you Not My Child! Monday...

My daughter would not make a sand cake and then decide to try it. Ummmm...nope! She did not later that night tell me that "sand cakes are NOT yummy!"

My son did not look like a crack addict spaz when he kept asking for tokens at Charles E. Cheddar. (what my husband calls chuck e cheese)

My son did not tell everyone in our neighborhood that it was his birthday. He did not come into the house to show me the card the neighbor a few houses down gave him with $5.00 in it. Nope my kid would not do that!

While raspberry & cherry picking on Sunday my son did not sit in raspberries and end up with red stains on his shorts. He also did not ask me to pit his cherry for him. Ahem. I am not a mommy bird sweetie, you are 8 spit the pit out.
My daughter did not "collect" raspberries and cherries in her bucket...she does not like to "collect" things lately. She did not refuse to eat them.
Thanks for stopping by. I adore comments and would love for you to leave a comment so I can check out your blog, too.

This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what her children and everyone else's children have not been doing this week.

Sunday Citar

On Thursday I took Lily to the wading pool and she had a great time. She was even more excited when we went over to get Ian and bring him back to the wading pool. He is her hero.

They looked so adorable sitting next to each other on the side of the pool.
She had to hold his hand...
"A brother is a friend given by Nature." Jean Baptiste Legouve


Welcome to Sunday Citar! This blog quote meme was created by Fresh Mommy. You can stop by her blog to see the quotes and photos that she and everyone else is loving right now.

Happy Birthday Ian!

It doesn't seem possible that 8 years ago today I gave birth to my son. I remember it like it was yesterday. I worked a full day. I came home and felt strange and called my OB. She sent me to the hospital. I was having contractions the whole ride to the hospital. When I got out of the car my water broke in the hospital parking lot (I was so glad my husband had his golf towel in the trunk). You see this would be all normal, if this would have been happening 5 weeks into the future. My son decided he needed to be here 5 weeks early. I got to the parking lot around 5pm and @8:3pm my son was born. He weighed 6lb 8oz! I could only imagine how large he would have been if I would have gone those 5 extra weeks. Actually I don't want to ever imagine that. My son knew he needed to be here...there were 2, yes 2, true KNOTS in the umbilical cord. We were very lucky that night 8 years ago. My OB told us to go buy a lottery ticket. My son was in the NICU for 10 days, but that is another story for another day...a take me back tuesday type of day.

Happy BIRTHDAY sweetie!!

XOXO, mommy