Remembering........

So, this month has been really hard emotionally. Stranger and I both felt it but didn't really talk about it. And then a few nights ago, as I was rocking TinyDancer to sleep, it hit me as to why. The first baby that we lost would have been 2 this month. My due date was March 24.

We've talked a lot in our grief support meetings how your body just knows - and even without you actually thinking about it with conscious thought, your body knows and grieves. And sometimes you don't realize why until a bit later. This is SO true! We still think about our two little angels that we didn't have the chance to get to know.

This is for my oldest angel in Heaven......we love you.....take care of your siblings until we get there....

Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Uploaded by filipegodinho

Once a month cooking!

A few weeks ago, while surfing for recipes on my lunch break, I discovered a website called http://www.onceamonthmom.com/ - and it is awesome! The concept is that you spend one day cooking and at the end of the day you have 10-15 breakfasts, 10 lunches, and 15 dinners - or about enough to last a month. Stranger is never home for lunch (and since we are headed into a few call months back to back, often won't be home for dinner), and TinyDancer gets breakfast and lunch at school, so I intend to have a few nights of "breakfast for dinner" and a few of the lunch items for dinner - so we'll probably stretch it out even further. They plan the menus, make the grocery list, and EVEN have instructions on the most efficient way to make all of that food. And it is my favorite ...... everything on their website is FREE! Stranger and I have tried this before - we've spent the day making some casseroles and spaghetti sauce - but this website offers a month of cooking that is more than just casseroles! This month we are going to eat minestrone soup, firecracker salmon, mandarin orange chicken, and more. Everything looks delicious! So, I decided that I had to try it out. Everything is set up to feed 2 families of about 4 people each - so I asked my good friend and neighbor if she wanted to try it out t0o. Oh - and one thing that it took me a minute to figure out - the "March" menu - they intend for you to shop for the ingredients and do the cooking in March and eat the food in April.... and so on..

We did our cooking on Saturday and it was a lot of work - but it was a blast!! I agree with Courtney and Tricia - you definitely have to pick a partner that you can laugh with! We did some of the shopping together, and you can't NOT laugh when you see a cart with 14 lbs of chicken, 9 lbs of salmon, and 5 lbs of beef! Or when you realize that when you calculated how much taco seasoning you need, you did the conversion of teaspoons to tablespoons wrong and now you have twice as much as you needed! Good thing Heather checked before dumping that into the pot or we'd have some interesting "un"stuffed shells! 8 )

Stranger helped me get everything together the night before - we put all of the groceries and kitchen tools out on the kitchen table as they suggested and that was a huge help. He also helped me cut up the veggies the night before - and that was a lifesaver! Stranger had some concerns about our project so, as we were chopping together, I fielded a few questions from him: Are you going to wear hair nets? Ummm.... No.
Are you going to set anything on fire? Ummm..... No.
Am I going to have to do the clean up? Of course not - we'll handle it. hee hee.

We got started around 8:30/9:00 on Saturday morning and finished around 5:00. With the cooking. The cleanup took another hour. Hee hee. We hit a few bumps along the way - we ran out of onions and soy sauce, and salmon - we miss counted the number of bags that we bought - hee hee - but we were able to laugh and recover. We did some of the dishes along the way ..... I mean that our AWESOME husbands did some of the dishes along the way..... and one of our husbands got to chop some extra onions... hee hee ....... after we were done, I commented to Stranger that we made a bigger mess than I thought we would. To my surprise, his response was "Really? You made exactly the size mess I thought you would!" ha ha.

Overall, it was fun and I'm glad to have a months worth of cooking out of the way. The April menu will be up soon and we might do it again next month.

Some tips for next time -
- go with the minced garlic. I love my garlic press, but it would be worth it to have one less thing to chop
- read the recipes AND the instructions before cooking. We each read the instructions, but there were a few steps that we wished that we were more familiar with.
- the labels that they made were awesome! I didn't have label paper, so I printed them on regular paper and we cut them out and taped them to the food.
- it was really really nice to have an extra pair of hands to do the dishes while we were cooking!

My partner took some photos - so check out her site for her recap and some photos - http://www.familyjourneyoffaith.blogspot.com/.

Has anyone seen my baby??

This is a photo of all of TinyDancer's babies. Do you think she has enough? She doesn't! Whenever I ask her if we have enough, she says, "No. I just need two more." It's hilarious. Some of these were mine when I was little, some were gifts, and some she purchased with Christmas or birthday money.

Although, she has agreed that we finally have enough strollers!

How many babies do you see? We have a prize for whoever can count all of the babies!

Don't strain yourselves - there isn't really a prize! 8 )

10 Honest Things

Remember my Honest Scrap award from a few weeks ago? Well, I finally have time to sit down and write my 10 honest things. Here goes.....

1. I hate to watch other people brush their teeth. Even TinyDancer and even on TV. Blah!

2. I am going to be an Aunt again in September and I could NOT be more excited! I think my sister is hoping for a girl as my nephew is very busy. I don't care either way - I just hope they are healthy. And have kidneys that work!

3. I sleep with the last nightgown that SleepingAngel wore. Everynight. Her scent has long ago faded but I can't bring myself to wash it or put it up in her room. And on the nights that I forget to grab it, I don't sleep as well and don't realize why until I wake up the next day.

4. I hate working. I absolutely love my job, my boss is awesome and I couldn't ask for better coworkers, but I would much rather be home playing with TinyDancer. I never thought that I would want to be a SAHM, but the minute that TinyDancer was placed in my arms I knew that there was so much more to life than working. Not because I'm lazy and I just don't want to work, but because being home with TinyDancer, even on the frustrating days, is so much better than spending the day apart from her. These years are precious and I see them slowly slipping away. Every month I crunch the numbers to see if we can survive on just Stranger's salary. Not yet but hopefully soon!

5. I only read "brain candy" books. I can never get into biographies or books that make you think. Nope. It is just brain rotting romance and mysteries for me!

6. Sometimes when I'm at church, I can't focus on what is going on around me. All I remember is how it felt to hold SleepingAngel that last time right before her casket was closed forever. And Stranger pulling me away so that we didn't have to see it, murmuring that that wasn't SleepingAngel anymore. And all I can see is a tiny white casket at the front of the church.

7. On the good days, I know that SleepingAngel is watching over us and knows that we love and miss her. I understand that God intended for her time here to be short.

8. On the bad days - and we still have lots and lots of them - the only reason that I get out of bed and stay out of it is because TinyDancer needs me. If it wasn't for her I don't know what I'd do.

9. I miss running and I'm trying to figure out how to fit running and boot camp into my schedule.

10. Sometimes when I pick out books or movies for TinyDancer at the library, I get them because I want to read them or see them.

Um....Mom, when are you leaving?

My daughter said this to me when we were at her grandma's house! We go there on Sunday afternoon's for family dinners and tonight she is spending the night there. Right before dinner, she came in from the backyard and asked me when I was going to leave. I asked her if I could stay for dinner and she said "No. You can eat at home." Nice!

Artwork

I love this drawing! TinyDancer drew this while I was making our grocery list today. It started as a picture of our family playing babies and then she added a few things. See the happiness? That is our happiness from playing together.

Spaceship returns to Russia

Over the weekend, TinyDancer took another spaceship to Russia. Only this time she brought donations for the orphanage and she had enough money. Perhaps Stranger and I need to find something else to talk about over dinner? 8 )

More conversations from our house......

TinyDancer and I discussing the glue and paint on her paints one day after school
TinyDancer: "I had a busy day. I have paint and glue all over my pants"
Me: "What were you doing today?"
TinyDancer: "Painting. And glueing."

Of course! 8 )


While looking at her Aunt's scrapbook
TinyDancer: pointing to a picture "Who is that?"
Me: "That is Aunt Ali."
TinyDancer: "Really?"
Me: "Yes. She used to play soccer when she was little. Now she is a big person, huh?"
TinyDancer: "Yes. And much to big to play soccer."

Conversations from our house

Some things that have been overheard in our house lately:


- TinyDancer to us - "Stop spelling all your words! I don't know what you are saying!"

- Me to Stranger - "Why aren't you wearing pants?". Just kidding - that was to TinyDancer.

- TinyDancer and I on the way home from tumbling class:
TinyDancer: "Today Mr. Hot Dog (yes, that is the name of her teacher) asked everyone what our favoite restaurant is."
Me: "And what did you say?"
TinyDancer: "Bucco di Beepo."
Me: "Yum! That is my favoite too. I didn't know that was your favorite."
TinyDancer: "They have great food!" (I kid you not - she said that!)
Me: "They do! I thought your favorite was Old MacDonalds."
TinyDancer: "Well, I like that too - but it isn't my favorite."
Me: "Oh. What did the other children say?".
TinyDancer: waving her hands in the air "Everyone else said Chucker Cheese. I don't even know what that is!"
Me: "Oh. We don't go there because their food isn't very good."
TinyDancer: "Who doesn't like their food?"
Me: "I don't. It isn't very tasty."
TinyDancer: "When was the last time that you went there?"
Me: "Not for a long time. I haven't been since I was a child."
TinyDancer: "Maybe you will like it better now."
Me: "Maybe."


Me to TinyDancer while in the bathtub - trying to wash her hair - "You can wash your hair more than once a week."
TinyDancer: "No. It isn't good for it to wash it a lot."

Field Trip

TinyDancer's school went on a Field Trip to a local farm today. She was *very* excited this morning because the field trip will involve:
1. Riding on a bus to and from the farm
2. Eating a lunch made from home and she picked to have "salami and cheese, toasted, on round bread", strawberries, and - something that we almost never have in our house - cookies!
3. Stranger will be accompanying her on said field trip. We just aren't ready for her to ride the bus by herself yet!


I can't wait to get home today and hear all about it. Stranger took the camera so we might have some pictures to add.

Award!

I won an award! My good friend over at http://allgrownuptoo.blogspot.com/ gave me this Honest Scrap award! Want to see it?

There are some rules that go along with the award:

1) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
2) Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Scrap.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3) List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

Hmm.....I'm not sure that I know 7 other bloggers! I'll have to think about this one!

Spaceship to Russia

Being a parent is so much fun! We keep thinking that TinyDancer can't get any more fun.....and then she does. I love hearing her little voice and all of the great ideas that she thinks of. And if being a parent to one child is this much fun, I can only imagine, and hope that I one day get to experience, how much fun it is to parent more than one. I can only imagine what hilarious things that can be imagined when there are multiple little minds bouncing things off of each other! I love giving her random stuff from around the house and seeing what she comes up with.

A few days ago, we were putting laundry away and Stranger left two or three laundry baskets in the living room. These became parts of TinyDancers spaceship. A spaceship that she was going to fly to Russia to pick up her baby sister. And then, it became a spaceship that she flew to Russia to pick up a baby sister for one of *her* babies. It was hilarious to see her fly the ship and then get out and run around the house and into her tent - yes, we have a little pink tent set up in our living room right now..... - doing whatever it was that she was doing. Sometimes her baby got to fly in the space ship, and sometimes her baby had to stay home.

However, in the end, she was sent home with no baby because she didn't have enough money. Do you think that is a little foreshadowing? Ha ha.

Theme Song

Do you have a theme song? Apparently, Stranger does. As I was showering after Boot Camp this morning, I switched on our shower radio and all of the sudden, he pokes his head INTO into the shower and shouts "This is my favorite song!!! I sing this everyday on the way to work!" And then starts singing. And playing air guitar. I was going to suggest a more appropriate place for this conversation, say, after I was out of the shower and dressed, but I was cracking up too much.

So, here it is, for your enjoyment. Stranger's theme song - Great Day to Whoop Somebody's Ass by Paul Thorn

Video Game Superstars!

Stranger's parents bought us a Wii as a super duper early birthday present and holy cow it is fun! I'm not big into video games - the new ones with all of the 3D twists and turns make me motion sick - so I was a bit skeptical at first. Boy was I wrong. Don't tell Stranger that I said that!! 8 ) Stranger has turned into a tennis addict while TinyDancer and I prefer bowling. TinyDancer is getting good! Yesterday she bowled several strikes and ended up with a score over 100! Woo hoo!

On Saturday, we stayed up waaaaay to late playing with the Wii Fit and trying to outdo each other on the hula hoop and the ski jump. And we are both feeling it today! I however, hold the record with over 800 hula hoops in 3 minutes. I'm hoping to break 1000 eventually!

The Wii Fit also analyzes your posture and center of balance. Stranger's center of balance was "near perfect". Which he keeps reminding me. "I am perfect! Perfect! The Wii Fit said so. You can't argue with technology." Riiiight. I don't recall ever critiquing his balance, but, whatever.

Thanks to our parents for a super fun new toy! This is helping the wait go by faster. Or at least making it more enjoyable!