In Honor of Uncle James (197/365)

We'll miss you. Be safe on your way back to Curryland (by way of Boyscoutville - please don't kill dad on your way there).

Good Food, Sickness, and Battle of the Wills (196/365)

Today I finally think I finally duplicated my mom's BBQ. She always cut hers up, but every time I've used pork shoulder, cooked it a bit, then went to go cut it up before cooking it some more, it fell apart so I just had to shred it. This time I used pork loin because it was cheaper and wouldn't you know it held together so I could cut it up and the texture was finally just like mom's. It probably could have cooked a bit longer to be a bit more tender, but I sure as heck liked it. Guess I will be using pork loin from now on.

It's 11pm and I'm still up for two reasons. One we'll get to in a second, the other is because I love my brother so much that I'm making him a batch of Opie cookies. Dad's oven runs way too hot, so the first batch is edible, but not perfect. After that I dropped the temperature again and cut the time by 5 minutes (ugh, and these cookies take 20 minutes to cook so cooking for less time was ok by me) and the other batches came out looking and tasting pretty darn good. I hope he appreciates them. :)

The other reason I'm still up is the fact that we had a battle of the wills with Alice tonight. She's been having some major attitude and listening issues (it doesn't help that she's inherited major stubbornness from both sides of the family) lately and today she decided she wasn't going to eat her dinner. For three LONG hours she decided to be stubborn, throw a fit, scream and shout, and just about anything under the sun other than eat her food. Eventually she gave in and finished, but let me just say I hope we don't have a repeat of this any time soon.

Please pray that no more of us get sick, especially with Dad and James's big trip coming up. It started last night with Charles, we figure he ate some bad chicken salad at Subway on his way back home. He was miserable, but thankfully he felt much better in the morning. I am having a few issues myself, but so far I'm not sure that I'm sick. Matt, however, went home sick from work today. His stomach was really bothering him and he just couldn't make it through the day (his coworkers joked that it was because of his toilet hand). He must really be feeling awful because he never goes home sick unless he's really sick. I'm not sure what all he did when he got home, but when I talked to him he had crashed on the couch and eventually threw up. He's supposed to come down tomorrow night, we'll see if he makes it. I'll keep you posted.

Now I'm off to bed. Two and a half more days left at home. I don't want it to end.

What An Exhausting and Fun Day (195/365)

I was ready to go to bed at least two hours ago so I'll keep this
short. Today JJ, Cindy, Tori, the girls, and I all went to "the water
park.". It was quite a steamy day so of course the place was packed to
the gills, but we still manager to have a great time. Here ate some
highlights.

- Izzy has absolutely no fear of just about anything. She insisted
that we let her walk in the water by herself (1 ft 6 in water) which
meant that she ended up face first in the water several times. Alice
would cry and freak if she did that, but not Iz. As soon as she got up
she was ready for more. She's so not MY kid.

- Alice warmed up to the water faster than I had anticipated. She went
from being scared and wanting me to hold her after she went under
water after her first slide, to not wanting to leave and making plans
to come back "in a few weeks" by the end of the day. She LOVED the
lazy river where you could float from pool to pool, but her absolute
favorite was the wave pool. I don't think I've ever seen her so happy.

- Grandma got peed on by Izzy. Those damn swim diapers.

- JJ made a fantastic dinner afterwards Pork chops, veggies, salad,
and fried cabbage made special for James (he shared) made for one
yummy dinner.

- I have to find a new sunscreen. I've used the spray kind for years
and only had slight issues with it breaking down when wet, but today
was awful. I looked like I was peeling from head to toe from a bad
sunburn and it felt nasty. Needless to say I tried to stay in the
shade some because I was afraid I'd get burned. I still feel like I
could use another shower.

- And just for fun, everyone make fun of Matt for having to shove his
hand in a toilet today at work because his ring is so damn big it fell
off into the toilet. Now tell him to go get it resized already!

The Events of the Day (194/365)

• I woke up still feeling like hot garbage from the night before. I think I really overdid it on the curry. I felt like puking my guts out by about 11pm.
• James let me take a catnap or two while the girls played and he made sure they didn't kill themselves or each other (thanks, bro).
• During Izzy's nap, James built a little wooden airplane with Alice and took her outside to play. I'm assuming they had a great time because when she came back she was the same color as her shirt (hot pink) and no she wasn't sunburned. She's just heat sensitive like her Uncle Freddy.
• I made cottage cheese pancakes, per James's request, for dinner tonight and boy were they scrumptious (yes Charles, I made sure the old man kept his paws off of the last one).
• After dinner we all went our separate ways. Grandma went to a meeting at school and took Alice with her, Dad and James went down to Camp Bunn, and Izzy and I stayed home and played until it was her bedtime.
• One awesomely cute thing she did today was I was humming a tune and surfing the web while she was playing, she stopped what she was doing and came over to me, put her forehead on mine and started humming along with me. I don't think we were humming the same tune, but it was damn cute regardless.
• Alice was brave and actually went down a few slides today (this kid absolutely hates slides) and she even traversed some sort of giant giraffe at Grandma's school. I'm quite proud of her bravery!

Tomorrow I will be making fried cabbage and Tori, JJ, Grandma, the girls, and I will be heading to Knights Action Park for an afternoon filled with waterpark fun. I hope the 93*F weather treats us well. Afterwards we plan on eating at and hanging out at JJ's house, which isn't far from the park. I can't wait!

Izzy Didn't Mind My Almost Like GG's, GG Spaghetti (193/365)

It may look like she's wearing most of it, but in reality she ate about 90% of it. She must really like curry because I sure put enough in to make James feel at home. EEEP!

I won't talk about what my other child was up to today. I'm afraid if I do I may pop this throbbing vein in my head out of frustration.

I Almost Forgot (192/365)

Thanks to James I didn't forget to do my blog tonight.

Well it's just the rents, James, the girls, and I now. Everyone else has gone back home for the week because they are all suckers who have jobs. Today we went out for "Mexican" food before everyone parted ways courtesy of the old folks and I must say I was pretty impressed with my fajita - one of the best I've ever had. Good food I expected, what I didn't expect was for Matt and Nurse JJ to have to force a chip from Isabel's throat. She's ok and happily ate her quesidilla 15 or so minutes later, but she sure has hell gave us all a scare. I sure hope some day that kid will give up the giving her mother a heart attack ploy for attention. I get it, kid! Enough already!

Tomorrow - probably some playtime with Uncle James and I'm making Grandma spaghetti. Hopefully I can make GG proud!

Enjoying Her First PB Sandwich (191/365)

Not only did she love it, but I'm happy to report that she didn't have
a contact reaction like Alice did at this age. I predict many more PB
sandwiches are in her future!

All Tuckered Out (190/365)

This is how Iz was sleeping at the end of her marathon nap (5.5
hours). Guess she takes after Uncle James.

Things Are Going Well (189/365)

We got really fantastic news from the cardiologist today - Izzy doesn't have to go back and see him until this time NEXT YEAR! I'm so freaking elated. Going from having to take her twice a month or so to once a year is total validation that we made the best decision for her when we opted to go the surgery route. Dr. G was impressed with how teeny tiny and faded Izzy's scar is (I'll have to take a pic of it someday so those of you who are far away can see it), it literally looks like nothing more than a cat scratch. He was also pretty impressed with the fact that she says "thanks." Anyway, the best news we got was that you can't even tell from her EKG that she's had surgery, and apparently they typically can. It was a great way to start the day, that's for sure!

Afterwards we packed the car and headed to J'ville where we plan to spend some time with James and whoever else happens to be around. ;) It should be good times.

I Think She Liked the Chocolate Chip Pancakes (188/365)

I've never given them to her before because I just didn't want to deal
with the mess, but she was wearing a Cubs onesie today so I thought
I'd let her go for it.

Sorry, Mary. ;)
(don't worry, it's not ruined. It's currently soaking in OxyClean)

Alice Really Wanted to Make Daddy a Cake (187/365)

Maybe we'll make a real one this weekend at Grandma's house. Happy
32nd Birthday, Matt!

Bam-Bam, Bam-Bam! (186/355)

Er, I mean Pebbles. Izzy wore her first pony tail today and she
actually left it in all day. She looked pretty crazy, but, of course,
it was cute. I'm kind of partial to the fauxhawk that developed when I
took it out, personally.

Happy 4th of July! (185/365)

Izzy is swimming in and went swimming in an extra pair of Alice panties.

The kissing (second) cousins, JR and Alice. "It tastes like the 4th of
July, Mommy!"

When did Izzy get so big? She really enjoyed sitting on the curb with
the big kids.

The best pic I got of the lot of them on my phone.

All Tuckered Out (184/365)

And Alice isn't the only one I'm referring to. We're off to bed, congrats Fred and Kathy!!

Wish Me Luck (183/365)

That I make it through tomorrow.
Today has already been a LONG day that started with our washing
mashine breaking down (thankfully Matt was able to fix it) and ended
with the best bridal party gifts ever! Alice and I got personalized
frames and Matt got a personalized money clip/pocket knife. I'm
exhausted and still have to get everything together for tomorrow
before I hit the sack.

Tomorrow will for sure be a GREAT day and I'm so excited it's finally
here!!