Good morning all! I'm sure that most of us in the States are sitting in houses full of the yummy smell of cooking turkey, hanging out with family (hopefully minus the family drama LOL), and gearing up for the feast to come.
This year, we have so much to be thankful for....here's my short list:
-thankful for being blessed with so much when there are so many families out there with so little
-thankful for the continuing good health of everyone we love
-thankful for great friends
-thankful for amazing So.Cal weather, which means we will have blue skies and 80F temps today
-thankful for Little Man's thoughtfulness: he made made us "breakfast" yesterday:
When I came downstairs, I found these Nutella and banana sandwiches all set up on the table. And LM had even put away all the ingredients and put his dirty knife into the sink!
-thankful for a very silly Monkey Boy, who makes me laugh at least five times a day
-thankful for having our extended families so close that we can visit any time we like
-thankful for the Dearest, who is an amazing dad and hubby
Both the small men had today off (actually, Little Man has the whole week off, what?) so we decided to go to Legoland. I was worried that it would be crowded, but I think a lot of kids had school and didn't get out till noon because there weren't a lot of people there when we arrived at 10:30am.
We headed straight to the back of the park, where there were almost no lines (since everyone else was still at the front of the park). We hit the Dragon Coaster and the Knight's Joust in quick succession:
While Monkey Boy was on the Knight's Joust, LM and I went to the Knight's Tournament, where they strap you into a huge mechanical arm and throw you around. We usually do Level One, which is totally mellow. But today LM wanted to try Level Two- not so mellow! I didn't realize that they turn you upside down and sideways! OMG! I was proud of LM for trying it, though, because he's generally so cautious.
We also went on the Lego Boats:
By now the park was starting to get crowded so we hit a few more rides before leaving. I was worried we'd get stuck in the pre-holiday traffic, but it wasn't too bad. We got home fairly quickly and the Dearest ran off to rescue a client while the small men and I hung out at home. We ended up strapping on our hockey skates and playing some hockey in the street till it got dark, then headed inside to play with Legos and eat dinner.
Luckily, we are not having Turkey Day at our house tomorrow; we're going to MIL's house, which means I didn't have to clean or prepare too much. I'm going to boil some eggs and potoatoes tonight since the Dearest volunteered to bring potato salad for dinner. Wish me luck, as I don't normally make potato salad! LOL The Dearest looked up some internet recipes, though, and I'm going to try following one of those.
My sis is coming out this weekend so we will be Thankgiving on Saturday at our house. Instead of turkey, the Dearest got us a turducken...! I've never cooked one of these before so hopefully it turns out good! The one we got is HUGE...the turkey alone weighed 20lbs! I think we're going to have leftovers for months!
Please send prayers and positive thoughts to my dear friend J, and her Dad, who are walking in the San Diego Three-Day this weekend. J's mom passed away two months ago from breast cancer, and that's when her Dad decided to walk for the first time. They cover 20 miles a day for three days! And they wear these tutus wings the entire time! (I'm not sure J's Dad knew he was going to have to wear the wings and tutu when he signed up LOL!)
-yoga class this morning was lovely...even tho my hip is killing me from PT yesterday, it felt SO. GOOD. to stretch and twist
-one of these days I'm going to take the 745am level 1 yoga class, then take the 9am Bikram-ish class right after...I think that would be such a great workout!
-I love the Dearest, just because :)
-Monkey Boy came running out of the house this morning when I came home....wearing nothing but his chonies and a t-shirt! And he had just woken up...at 9am!
-the dog keeps sneaking upstairs when I leave to take Little Man to school; she will eat whatever snacks are laying around on the sofa (I usually put out MB's milk and morning snack when I leave, since he's not awake yet).
-I did six loads of laundry over the weekend, so why is there still laundry laying all over my upstairs hall???
-got another bruise on my thigh from the 'massage' the physical therapist gave me yesterday. But at least my hip is feeling a lot better!
-coffee + banana bread rocks!
-the big, tattooed guy on the mat next to me in class this morning was a very loud breather....and at one point I realized that I had totally synced my breathing to his...so we were both blowing like we had sprinting....and I also realized that no one else in class was breathing as loudly as we were (except maybe the teacher) LOL
-it's supposed to be cool today- yay! I might break out boots and tights again!
-I made roasted shrimp in the oven last night for dinner...never done that before and it was *good*
-also, found out you can substitute sushi rice for arborio rice when making risotto...tastes the same, the texture is a bit different but workable
-Monkey Boy is 4.5 yrs old, going on 15...that kid can work up some ATTITUDE
-I have a parent-teacher conference with Monkey Boy's teacher today...it will be fun to hear what she has to say about him!
-my kitchen is actually pretty clean...!?
-still gotta finish editing the photos from my shoot last Friday
-Monkey Boy has a loose tooth!!
-trying to think of what to make for dinner tonight and totally drawing a blank...
That's it for today's rambles...now it's off to shower, make lunch, and carpool....Have a great Wednesday!
Yesterday was one of those baking/sewing/laundry/cleaning days that makes me feel like June Cleaver...without the pearls. I wore my apron almost all day long, except for running out to pick up Little Man and the neighborhood kids at carpool.
I got roped into volunteering at MonkeyBoy's preschool- meet the new co-room mom for his class! *bow* thank you! One of the room mom projects for this month was making smocks for the Thanksgiving 'feast' party. I had bought the fabric last week, and yesterday I sat down to cut and sew the smocks. Cutting them didn't take long, even with Monkey Boy's "help". He was so insistent about helping that I ended up giving him some scraps of fabric so he could cut his own designs out.
After a while, we took a break from cutting/sewing to make some banana bread. Check out MB helping me with that too:
While the bread baked, I got my sewing machine and started sewing up the smocks. At some point we finished all eleven smocks, pulled out the banana bread, and made lunch...then it was time to pick up LM. The afternoon was filled with homework, cleaning/laundry, and getting ready for the evening rush. At least we didn't have soccer practice this week. Our last soccer games of the season were this last Saturday. Look at LM with his trophy (and the Dearest aka "Assistant Coach"):
I really wish I could get LM to give me a better smile, but nowadays he's into this strange grimace thing that shows off those huge front teeth!
Here is a quick iPhone shot of me and Monkey Boy at his team's trophy party. MB is so proud of his trophy, he has been carrying it around and showing it to everyone.
Strangely enough, both boys ended up on teams with green jerseys, even though they are in two separate divisions. That came in handy a couple of times when I couldn't find one or the other's jersey...I just put on whichever jersey I could find! LOL
Today is going to be super busy...We have friends coming over for a playdate in a few minutes...then it's off to preschool for MB, physical therapy and then a teeth cleaning for me, pick up at preschool, dinner, and finally the art fair at LM's school tonight. I was going to try and fit yoga in there somewhere, but I think that's going to have to wait till tomorrow morning.
This is my second week of going to physical therapy and I'm not looking forward to it. I have an OLD (as in 12+yrs ago) knee injury from playing hockey, and it's really been bothering me for the past couple of years. Since I've been doing yoga quite intensively, I've really noticed how much weaker my left (injured) leg was than my right. I was having pain in my hip and knee and finally went to see my GP, who luckily specializes in sports medicine. He couldn't find anything wrong with a physical exam, so sent me for an x-ray, which came back clean.
The next step was PT, and I made my first appt. last week. I've never had PT before, but the therapist I got was great. Not only does she practice yoga and pilates herself, her little boy goes to the same school as LM. Her diagnosis was atrophy of my left hip flexor, probably held over from when I broke my left fibula (also playing hockey) 15yrs ago. It doesn't help that I have scoloisis and my pelvis is really out of whack. I was surpised that I would have pain from such an old injury, especially considering that I was/am pretty active, and felt that I had made a full recovery from the original injury.
The therapist thinks that the muscles in my left hip never fully regained their pre-injury strength, contributing to my knee pain and an extremely tight IT band. I never really noticed it before because I would compensate with the right side of my body. But in yoga, we work both sides of the body equally in ways that most sports/exercieses don't. So the weakness in my left leg and hip became more pronounced as my practice progressed.
Luckily, the therapist didn't tell me to stop yoga...just to 'dial it down a notch'. Also, no more walking downhill to LM's school for at least three weeks...and she added some exercises to help strengthen my left hip. She also worked on my IT band A LOT last week....in fact I had a bruise about eight inches long and two inches wide on the outside of my left thigh that proves it. Luckily, the bruise is healed just in time for her to do it again this week! I'm not complaining too much, though. Between the excercises and being more aware of how my leg moves while practicing yoga, my hip is feeling at least 60% better...and my knee is 90% pain free. That's amazing considering that I had such bad hip pain earlier this month that I literally couldn't walk after sitting for more than 10 minutes. I would have to stand and let the muscles stretch for 30 seconds or so before I could move. Now I'm able to get up with minimal pain- woot!
I'm not really looking forward to today's PT appt, but since it's working I'll have to go. Now...it's time to tidy up, make a pot of coffee, and break out the banana bread for MB's playdate!
Little Man complained a couple of times last week that one of his molars was bothering him. We were supposed to go to the dentist on Tuesday to get a small cavity filled, so I figured I could ask the dentist about the molar then.
Of course, I got a call Tuesday morning from the dentist's office saying he had the flu and so LM's appt. that afternoon had to be rescheduled. When I went to pick up LM at school, he showed me his tooth and the whole filling had fallen out. And there was a big crack in the remaining tooth! Luckily it wasn't bothering him much, aside from the funny feeling of the crack.
We were finally able to get back into the dentist's office on Friday, by which time the cracked part of LM's tooth had finally fallen off (he was pretty upset as he thought he wouldn't get $$ from the tooth fairy for the cracked part). Well, the dentist took a look at the molar and we decided that since it was a baby molar and it ws already loose, he would pull it out.
LM was SO brave!
I was very impressed with how well LM held up- he tends to be very sensitive about physical discomfort (he's the one who screams when he gets a papercut). So I was expecting a lot more drama when the dentist told him the tooth needed to be pulled. But the only sign LM was really worried was the little wrinkle in his
forehead. He did great- the whole tooth came out in two pieces, and the
dentist told him that since the tooth got pulled, the Tooth Fairy would
bring 2x the $$, which seemed to make it all better in LM's eyes!
It's from July of 2006...I took it when we visited a friend's small hobby farm. Little Man was watching the chickens in their coop when Monkey Boy walked up behind him and gave him a big hug.
I loved the photo, but I wasn't a fan of the background...so I played with the image in Photoshop and came up with this digi-layout:
All the papers and elements from Kasia Designs' "Dandelion Wishes" kit. I love how the page turned out. And best of all, the whole kit only cost me a $1! Shabby Pickle Designs is having an incredible $1 sale to celebrate Digital Scrapbooking Day. The sale goes through this weekend (11/6-11/8), so if you want to pick up some really great digi goodies, head on over!
-This is the best, most REAL post about marriage + babies, evah!
-it's supposed to be 'cool' today..that means 75F instead of 85F. Seriously? 85F in November?
-I went shopping at Old Navy yesterday and picked up a sweater dress. I'm not sure it's a keeper- I'm kinda scared to wear it, but it looked cute in the store so we'll see. Of course I don't know why I was trying on sweater dresses when it was 85F- I was sweating like a pig in the fitting room!
-it looks like LIttle Man cracked one of his baby molars. augh. And of course our dentist is out sick...the crack happened yesterday but the tooth is still holding on and it doesn't seem to be bothering him too much right now. I'm waiting for the dentist's office to call me back...
-for goodness' sake, end the drama
-I want to wear my new boots- these are seriously the most.comfortable.boots.ever. And can I tell you, I bought knee socks? To wear with my boots? And it's totally cute?
-I haven't worn knee socks since Catholic school
-TMobile has been acting all wonky...I can make calls, but not receive them. Then I can receive calls, but not make them. This morning it seemed to be working fine...but we'll see!
-I have an oatmeal breakfast muffin that I want to make today...
-Little Man is the sweetest little boy....this morning I was dropping him off in the car-dropoff line and he leaned inside as the van door was closing and yelled: "You're the best Mama ever!" *unclench heart*
-I need to clean my kitchen
-Laundry is the devil
-I dropped off LM early today so I could make the 745am yoga class; so glad I went!
-wanna try some soap making....why not?
-I have a crafty home project to work on today....so maybe it'll be muffins, then dropoff, then crafty project???? Or more likely I'll just fart around on the computer till it's dropoff time, then fart around at home and waste the whole day.
-Why do I feel like I spend all day picking up around the house, but it's never clean?
