Notes From the Weekend

So, Saturday we had a birthday party for those late winter and spring birthdays. It was fun to get to see everyone again, though I was sad that Jordan had to work. Brandon tourtured us with movies from his DVD collection...I really don't understand his taste in movies. I mean "Big Trouble in Little China"? What's up with that?

On Sunday we went to Lowes and bought some plants to put out in a perennial garden we're starting. Unfortunately it frosted last night, so I'm hoping they won't die completely. I'll let you know how our gardening adventure goes. I'm flirting with the idea of doing a raised bed vegetable garden because it would be less work, but we'll see.

A Little Bit of Spring

Last night I spent some time planting flowers in our front containers. I fancy myself a green thumb, but I guess we'll see. I have to say, though, that there's something special about planting things and getting your hands dirty and then seeing what you've planted thrive. I hope I don't forget to water them!

Yesterday I spent a lot of time at Walmart looking for new foods that I can give Colby. I think everyone thought I was crazy as I flipped through his food list looking for things. Some new things I bought - Pepperidge Farm Veri-thin bread, mini marshmallows, condensed soup in a variety of flavors, corn chex and adult apple sauce. I'm not sold on the teddy grahams, I think their too high in phe and sugar with little nutritional value. Now if only Colby would eat the foods I offer instead of throwing them on the floor.

I Just Realized...

I just realized that I complain a lot on my blog. Sorry about that. Things as a whole are really going okay. There are some bright spots on the horizon and things that make me smile every day. I'll try to include those things more often so that you don't get tired of my complaints.

Bright Spot #1: My friends are coming in for a visit this weekend!!!!!
Bright Spot #2: My parents are coming in next weekend and Michele might be coming too :-)
Daily Smile: Colby can wave (and it's really cute when he does!)

Baby Food Woes

So, we've been trying to get Colby to eat table food lately and it hasn't been going well. He'll eat puffs, chex and bananas, but no broccoli, no pasta, and no carrots. Two nights in a row dinner has ended with a screaming child. I think I'm going to have to try a new approach. I think I'm going to mash up the carrots a little and add a little bit of baby food carrots and see if he does better. Maybe he just doesn't like the texture of the solid foods, so I'll try to work up to whole carrots. I know that some people might be like, "let him cry it out and he'll eventually eat it." But when Colby is screaming at the top of his lungs because he's hungry and doesn't want what you're offering, you kind of want to do something about it (i.e. give him something else to eat).

I'm pretty frustrated with this whole food thing because the nutritionist wants us to increase the amount of phe he gets from food, but that means he needs to eat a wider variety of foods. The other problem is that I've trained myself to only look for low phe foods, so I'm not used to giving him higher phe foods to get to that magic phe number. I gave him honey nut cheerios for breakfast today just because I'm having a hard time getting in 200 mg of phe. I need to just take the food list to Walmart and figure out what sorts of things he can eat that are available. Then we'll be doing much better.

On a lighter note, I got some baking mix and I'm excited to make Colby some birthday cupcakes :-)

Speaking of Patience

So, my co-teacher thinks I'm really patient because I put up with my fourth block class like a champ. They are obnoxious and loud, but somehow I maintain a calm demeanor and I talk to them without being a sarcastic snot. But I do this only because I have two rules:

1. I will not give any student the satisfaction of seeing me blow up.
2. I will not let any student see me cry (when I get really upset I cry).

When they are obnoxious, I just remind myself that it's fourth block and I can almost go home. It's not patience when it comes to this class, I think it's just stubborn pride. I'm really not all that patient - Brandon drives me crazy when he takes forever to get ready to go out.

My other shortcoming - I'm disorganized. I'm sitting here looking at my desk in my classroom and it's a mess. There's paper everywhere and random stacks of things I need to do. It's not as bad as it could be, there's nothing growing on or in my desk, but it's still messy. I think I need a personal secretary that will keep track of everything and put it away as needed.

Well, I guess I'm going to go home and see what Brandon's been up to. I hope he went and bought that tree we were going to plant. I guess we'll see.

Pink Eye

Colby has pink eye. I feel bad for Brandon because it seems like whenever he's off, Colby gets sick and has to be picked up and taken to the doctor and then kept at home. I might have to take the day off tomorrow if he's not feeling better. Colby doesn't seem to be in a bad mood, but his left eye is swollen, red and gunky. And we have to give him eye drops, which is not fun for anybody.

I don't know what's wrong with me, but my stomach has been giving me issues. I don't think I have the flu or anything like that, but I'm not hungry even though my stomach is rumbly. I haven't eaten dinner for two nights in a row and very little for breakfast and lunch. It's weird.

Well, I got the daffodils planted and I'm going to plant the irises and daylilies today. I can't wait for there to be an actual lovely garden in the back yard! It'll be nice to look out the window and see something pretty, but I have to wait until things aren't going to be killed by frost. April maybe? Any thoughts anyone?

Sigh...

I love spring. I love the way the flowers start blooming and the air smells fresh, but I hate what it does to my allergies. I haven't been able to sleep. I think I'm going to take a nap on my desk upstairs so I can slog my way through the day.

It's St. Patricks Day...Happy Birthday Brandon and Lindsey! I'm a horrible person though, I forgot to dress Colby in green...woops!

Wet Weekend

So, it rained all weekend, but we didn't let it keep us down :-) On Saturday we went to Galax to hang out with Melissa and Andrew and to drop off the papers for the assumption (Our assumption was approved and as soon as the paperwork gets in, the house is ours!) We went to a restaurant called The Hardward Company. The food was okay, the dessert was amazing, but those waiters should have been named tweedle dee and tweedle dum. The one waiter kept setting things down in front of Colby - first the bread, which I moved, then the plates, which I moved, then the butter, which I moved. Hello! He's a toddler! He grabs things and throws them on the floor! Then he brought my salad (after the entre) and he set it down in front of Colby! I'd like to eat my salad without having it dumped on the floor, thanks.

On Sunday we went to Sunday School in Roanoke. I haven't been able to convince Brandon that finding a church in Radford is a necessary thing, so we're still traveling to Roanoke whenever Brandon is off. After that we came home and I proceeded to make a cake for Brandon (we were going to celebrate his birthday at his parents house). The cake part turned out fine, but the icing I made tasted a little funny. Brandon assured me it was fine and I proceeded to ice the cake. Unfortunately made it a little too runny and the top slid off the bottom. When I discovered this had happened, I was very upset. I mean, I'm the one that's supposed to able to make very tastey and visually appealing desserts and I can't even make a simple cake? I'm ashamed to say I cried about it before I marched down the Food Lion and bought a can of icing. It looked a lot better and didn't have a funky taste and I was even able to decorate it with green icing. I'm happy to say that it got a compliment out of Nick: "If I decorated a cake like that I'd take a picture because that's as good as it gets."

:-(

We're not going to Hampton this weekend because my mom has a cold :-( I was looking forward to going home and doing absolutely nothing except for hanging out with my family, but I guess I'll just do nothing while hanging out with Brandon and Colby (not that it's a hardship or anything). Oh well. I'll see everyone next month for sure while we celebrate Colby's birthday. Plus I guess I really aught to plant those flowers this weekend even if it is going to be cloudy and gross...............................................

March Madness

If you thought I was going to talk about basketball in this entry, I hate to disappoint you, but I couldn't care less about basketball. Instead, I was thinking that this month was going to be crazy, but in a nice, busy sort of way...my own March Madness if you will.

On Tuesday we traveled to Higher Ground to meet up with my dad to get some flowers they were getting rid of. It took an hour to drive out, but it was nice to see him and he enjoyed seeing Colby. Every time I see my dad with Colby I see a new view of my dad and it makes me smile just thinking about it. I wish we lived closer because my dad is going to be a great papa.

This weekend we're going to visit my family in Hampton. I haven't seen my grandparents in a while, so it will be nice to spend a relaxing weekend at home with everyone. Hopefully Brandon will get to relax too before his birthday on St. Patty's Day.

I'm really excited about the last weekend of this month because I can't wait to see everyone again and then on Sunday I'm excited to meet the Cornwell's. Their little boy Matthew has PKU too, so I'm excited to offer whatever knowledge I have and provide some encouragement to them.

If this is March Madness, I'll take it!

Fun Weekend

It's been a really fun weekend so far. On Friday I went to a Bible Study small group party at someone's house. It was really fun getting to know some new people that live in the area and plus, my small group won the game! Yesterday I went to a baby shower in Roanoke for one of the girls in Sunday School class. We played some games and chit chatted about having baby's and dealing with toddlers. It was really fun to hang out with other moms and mom's to be. Elizabeth is due around Colby's birthday, so it would be really fun if her baby and my baby had the same birthday. Oh, and there were 256 skittles in the bottle and I guessed 254...beat you Greg!

Today I want to a different church. It's actually the church I go to for Wednesday night bible study, so I know some people from the party on Friday and the bible study. It was really interesting because I was always taught that you dress up to go to church (my mother got really upset with me one time when I wore flip flops to church! :-) ), but this church is really informal and while a lot of people dressed up, a lot of people wore jeans too. The worship before the preachers message reminded me a little of a rock concert, but they were really good and it wasn't too loud. The message was really thought provoking too, so I think I may go back. I do however miss a good piano or organ solo, but over the years I've decided that it's the message that counts.

Closing Packet

I'm really excited because our closing packet is in the mail and on it's way over! That means that the house will officially be ours very soon. It really does already feel like our house - we've made improvements already and we have big plans for the back yard, so it already feels like our place.

The awesomeness of brilliant college students

So today I got an e-mail from the guys at Tech that are working on a PKU tracking program. It is pretty cool I have to say, so go take a look at the website if you're interested: http://www.cs2.org.vt.edu/PKUTracker/PKUTracker.html It's not so great with baby foods, but it's pretty good with everything else. I'm going to compare the numbers on the website with the numbers in my book just to make sure it's good, but it seems like a really great start to keep track of Colby's PKU! (And anyone else who has PKU!)

Productive Day

So, today was pretty busy considering I had another snow day. I went and got Brandy, but that was not a simple process and I'm still not done. I had to go to animal control and confirm that it was my dog, then go to the municpal building to pay the fine ($16) and then when I was on my way back with my reciept, I got a call saying the animal control guy had to go catch another dog and it would be 30 minutes until he got back. By this time I realized that getting Colby in and out of the car for multiple errands was going to be hell for me, so I decided to take him to daycare so I could get everything done and not feel guilty about it. So I got back to Radford, picked up Brandy, took her home (yes the gate was closed this time!) and then headed back out to Walmart. I was at Walmart yesterday, but I forgot to get diapers and cereal for Colby (how I forgot diapers I'll never know). Plus I wanted to get one of those ID tags for Brandy, but they're machine was busted. I came back home and got to cleaning the extra bedroom which is still strewn with everything we didn't put away when we moved in. It's still not clean, but it's a start at least. While cleaning I listened to the "radio" on Pandora.com (which is a really cool internet radio that I recommend you check out) and check the progress of my Amazon book sales - I was pleasantly surprised to see that I'd sold 4 books already! So after several hours of cleaning I went to the post office to mail the books, went to the Dublin Walmart to get dog tags, but they didn't even have a machine, so I went to get Colby. On my way home I had to call the day care to see what he had for lunch...they'd forgotten to write it on his report card (pretty important guys!) He's been pretty fun this evening...but maybe it's just my good attitude because I feel like I accomplished a lot today. He was still fussing over his teeth, but I got him to laugh a lot, so that was fun. At any rate, I still need to go the municpal building and register Brandy and then call animal control and tell them I got her registered, otherwise I'm going to get a ticket - not cool animal control guys. Hopefully tomorrow I feel just as productive!

Worst dog owner on the planet - me.

I think I might be the worst dog owner on the planet. This morning I took Brandy from the back yard to the front porch so I could dry her off before she came inside since she was covered in snow. I wasn't thinking and I left the back gate open. Later I let her out into the back yard - I didn't close the gate. I didn't realize she was gone for hours! I went to Walmart, came back, posted some books on Amazon to sell, played with Colby and then finally realized she was gone because of my stupidity. I rode around the neighborhood, stood outside in the wind and called her, but finally I got cold and decided to call animal control (after I called Brandon in tears). Animal control had picked her up not far from our house and I can pick her up tomorrow...but still. I feel pretty rotten that, that happened in the first place. It won't happen again that's for sure. I can't take the emotional stress.

So, when Colby talks I can see his teeth now. My little boy is growing up :-( I had to buy him a baby toothbrush (it's a little bristley pad that goes over your finger) and some Orajel...hopefully he'll sleep better than he did last night with some pain relief. He went to bed at 7 and then woke up two hours later. He only wanted to be held, but eventually he fell asleep, but it took much patience on my part. Colby walked yesterday too. Brandon and I sat about five feet apart and took turns sending him to the other person and catching him on the way back. I know, I know...it's not exactly walking when you seem like you're going to face plant at any second, but it was pretty exciting. Sometimes he stood between us keeping his balance like a big boy. I couldn't get him to step away from the loveseat today, though. I guess progress will be slow, but oh so fun to watch.

I haven't made snow cream yet...I don't have anyone to share it with since Colby can't eat it and Brandon's at work right now. I have all day tomorrow to work on it...I'm off again! Looks like it's the snow storm of 2009.

It's March, but it's snowing!

Saturday it snowed a total of a half inch, but today, I think it's snowed almost 4 inches. It's not posted yet, but I think we're not having school tomorrrow! It's so pretty outside, though. It's sticking on everything. Not good if you want to go out, but it's cool if you're looking at it from your back door. I'm considering making snow cream - I'll let you know how that works out.

Brandy is inside today. She's fussing because we have the gate between the living room and the dining room, but she'll be okay. My parents got to meet Brandy yesterday. We think my parents thought she was living under a piece of plywood propped between three chairs. Of course when they turned the corner and saw her dog house, they understood where she was living. On Friday Brandy got to go to school for a little while - she was such a good dog! She wasn't scared at all about walking into the buidling and she was very sweet and personable with everyone. I bet she'd make a really good nursing home dog. Maybe we can take her to see Brandon's grandmother one day.

Okay, so if you read the blog regularly, you know I want to have a party for Colby's birthday. I was thinking on April 11th, which is Easter weekend, we could maybe get everyone together and have a late winter/spring birthday's birthday party. So we could celebrate Gwen's, Brandon's, Lindsey's and Colby's birthday on one day. Let me know what ya'll think about that. Oh...side questions...when's Jordan's birthday?