Time to play catch up....

Let's see - what all has happened since my last blog? I had a doctor's appointment on the 20th - just my usual monthly appointment. Everything must be ok! The doctor is in the room with us for about 2 1/2 minutes which I admit is frustrating to me. We don't really have any questions or anything for her and I'm sure if we did that she'd stay and answer them, but I'm so use to the doctor I had when I was pregnant with Lexi & Kiegan. Dr. Hable would spend so much time asking me about how I was feeling or if this was ok or that was ok and it didn't matter to him if he had other patients waiting because he wanted everyone to have that personal attention from him. I also felt like he took time to check me and the baby over - the doctor I'm seeing now hasn't even started measuring my stomach or anything. All she does is listen to the heartbeat for about 30 seconds and says "Have any questions? No? Ok - see you in a month!" Oh well - I know she's good at what she does and I suppose that's all that matters. Fancy doctors are just very different from small town docs. Oh - I did have Lexi take a picture of me at 21 weeks so I'll try to post that picture soon!

Travis & I leave for Ohio early Sunday morning - we're ready for some time away! We're staying for a whole week this year. I've got our menu planned out and everything (I needed to make sure that I was going to be able to eat good!). Most of the food I'm going to make Friday night to cut back on preparation while we're out there. I think we're taking the camper to the Fairbury race track either Friday night or early Saturday morning and camping there all day/night Saturday for the Prairie Dirt Classic and then we'll pull out of there bright and early Sunday morning to head to Eldora Speedway in Ohio. It'll be nice to be able to just sit and relax for a few days without having to wait on people hand and foot! :o)

Our kids have all started school by now and they seem to be doing well so far. Patrick doesn't have a whole lot to say about 1st grade and somehow he still never remembers what he's learning when I ask him about it! :o) We're just really hoping that the new teacher this year will help 1st grade be a better experience for him than Kindergarten was (we don't want him visiting the principal's office as much). Lexi & Kiegan of course had homework when they came home on the first day of school, but I told them that once you get up into the higher grades (Lexi - 5th and Kiegan - 3rd) that you can probably expect to have more homework! So far they've both been great about sitting down and getting it done with no fussing - hopefully that will last. :o)

My daycare is really booming! I finally broke down and put an ad in the paper for a part-time (eventually going to full-time) assistant and holy cow - the response has been unbelieveable! My ad started last Thursday and since then I have received over 25 phone calls which is GREAT, but it is somewhat overwhelming at the same time. So I interview someone every night this week and every night the week we return from vacation. AND to top all of that off, one of my daycare moms works at the hospital and she said that just about every day for the past week and a half she's had people at the hospital ask if I had any openings (which I don't) and just yesterday she had FIVE new people ask her about my daycare. Oh and I've got 2 families "on standby" for me to hire an assistant so that they can start bringing their children here. So Travis and I are excited about the prospects of all of this interest in my daycare and are looking into possible options in the future to expand my business!

No big baby news....

So we had our sonogram this afternoon and of course we were hoping to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl, but the sonogram tech. couldn't really tell. We just know that there's a baby in there! She said that at 20 weeks, boy parts and girl parts look pretty much the same on a sonogram so she didn't want to guess at what it was and then be wrong. It weighs about 13 ounces which is a few ounces heavier than average babies at 20 weeks (not surprising I suppose considering the size of Travis). We see Dr. Ingram next Wednesday for our regular monthly appointment, but from what the tech. seemed to say everything looked good! We will have another sonogram closer to the end of the pregnancy so I suppose if we still want to find out we can then. :o)

Weekend update....

Well, our weekend was fairly busy as usual! Friday night was spent freezing corn - that's a fun job! There's just no way to speed up that process. The kids went with my mom to the Relay For Life at the high school to do the Youth Lap and eat dinner there with her. When she brought them back home (and was nice enough to bring us dinner), they BOTH decided that they wanted to spend the entire night there with her. I knew that would be an interesting ordeal; so I slept with my cell phone right next to me in case one of them (Kiegan) wanted to come back home, but I never received a phone call! BUT they were both completely ate up by mosquitos - especially on their faces!

Saturday afternoon was the St. Mary's Golf Outing - we had a really good time! I was worried that it would be rained out since it was raining when we woke up that morning, but it cleared up by the time it started (but we did get poured on at the very last hole). Trevor and Michael partnered with us which I think made it much more fun than it would have if we were partnered with people we didn't know. It's kind of hard to play pranks on strangers, but family is another story (needless to say Travis & I out-pranked the two of them.) We stayed for the dinner afterwards, but not the prizes since we knew none of us were going to win one anyway - plus it was getting late. Travis & I were suppose to go to a party that night, but after stopping to visit with his parents who just got home from Sturgis, our old bones were ready for bed.

The rest of this week has been pretty uneventful. I did close the daycare today due to lack of sleep last night. Lexi apparently came down with something and was vomiting most of the night and most of the day today. We spent our night on the couch and got very little sleep; so I decided that it probably wasn't the best idea to have a house full of kids on zero sleep plus Lexi running to the bathroom puking. She did finally fall alseep around 11:00 and slept for about 2 hours or so, woke up and soaked in the tub and has been doing much better since - thank goodness! Tomorrow will be an early day for the daycare anyway since we have our BIG appointment tomorrow afternoon to hopefully find out what the baby is! For those of you that want to be surprised, I won't put 'boy' or 'girl' in the title of the post, but something like 'Sonogram results' and then you all can decide for yourself if you want to read on and find out. :o)

Reunion....or was it?

So Saturday night was Travis' 10-year class reunion. Dinner started at 7:00 at Baby Bulls - the two of us are big fans of Baby Bull's food (especially the Gyros), but this food was NOT GOOD. Neither of us could even finish what was on our plates - I think the roll with butter was the best part of the whole meal! It was also sad Travis' class was one of the bigger classes and only about 50 people showed up and half of those were guests! After dinner some of us went to Bob & Ringo's for a couple of drinks (my water was AWESOME!) - there were a few more of his classmates there that didn't attend the dinner. Then we went to the Corner Junction for the remainder of the night. It was really pretty sad the number of kids in his class that are still into drugs and partying all the time. I mean we like to hang out at the bar with our friends every now and then, but there's a time when everybody needs to grow up, right?? Plus it really isn't much fun to be the sober one at a bar full of loud, drunk, obnoxious people. I'm surprised I still have my hearing after being surrounded by people that felt the need to yell louder than the person next to them!

Yesterday we were able to get Carol & Ike's bedroom furniture - I've never owned such nice stuff! In fact, I've never slept on a bed that had a headboard and footboard - I'm use to just plain ol' mattresses. It feels like we have a whole new bedroom - I just love it!

Well, Monday is done and over with. I've been getting a lot of emails off of my website lately for people looking for daycare which is good for me, but I don't have the room to take on anymore kids right now. Don't get me wrong - it's nice to be full, but I do wish that I had a part-time or full-time assistant to help me and then I'd be able to help more parents out. I'm hoping to be able to work with the high school co-op program - I figure it'll help the girls that are taking the daycare class because they'll be able to get the experience and it'll benefit me because I'll have their help! So we'll see what comes of that!

Ok - Travis & Kiegan just got home from checking the roads to see if they need chipped; so I better head out there and see if we're gonna start on corn tonight. Later! :o)

I'm a liar.

So I lied to everyone - we did NOT get the table & chairs. I guess the lady's husband already promised it to a co-worker and didn't tell her about it. I was pretty bummed - so now we're back to looking for something cheap again! It wouldn't be that big of a deal if DCFS wasn't all over me about the table/chairs we have now possibly hurting a daycare kid. DCFS....don't even get me started on them......

Oh and I also lied about going to the tractor pulls! They canceled them due to poor track conditions so that was another bummer!

Looks like we've got some HOT weather coming over the next week! I've been trying to get my daycare kids outside in the a.m. when it's still decent, but the past couple of times the kids have been complaining of the heat and asking to go back inside where it's cool.

Here's a chicken tip: I have a lot of recipes that call for chicken that's already been cooked and shredded. Usually I pull out the George Foreman Grill and cook them in there and shred them up, but I read in one of my daycare newsletters to cook a couple of whole chickens and have that on hand. So I bought a couple and after throwing up in my mouth while taking the nasty stuff out of the inside of it (neck bone and giblets), I put them in the crockpot with a cup or so of water and let them cook all day. By the evening, I could hardly get the chicken out of the crockpot because it was just falling off the bone! I picked it all apart and put it in freezer bags in 2 cup portions so now when I need already cooked chicken, I can just pull a bag out of the freezer! One chicken gave me about 6 cups when shredded.

New craving!

Some of you may know that I am in love with The Food Network - there are very few shows on there that I don't like to watch. I do have my favorites and Paula Dean is definitely one of them - there's nothing better than good southern cooking. Sure it's not the healthiest, but that's what makes it so good! Anyway, the other night she made a Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich - I was craving it immediately! She puts honey and cinnamon in with the peanut butter and then dips the sandwiches in cinnamon & sugar after they're fried. Of course we were out of bananas so I picked some up the next time we were at the store and fried up a couple of sandwiches for me & Kiegan. His first reaction was "Yuck!" until he tried a bite - we are both addicted! I want to eat one for every single meal and between every single meal! Here's a link to the recipe in case any of you want to be brave enough to try one - the recipe makes 4 sandwiches:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/paulas-fried-peanut-butter-and-banana-sandwich-recipe/index.html

No other news this week - I've been sleeping in Lexi's bed while she's at her dad's because SOMEBODY is having some serious snoring issues this week. I never knew how uncomfortable her bed was!

We also broke down and bought a dining room table and chairs - it's from back in the "olden" days (the chairs are all slingback chairs), but it was only $50 and should do the job until we can afford to buy something nicer. Plus it seats six which is what we need! The table and chairs we have now are just falling apart everywhere and I don't think there's much more Travis can do to keep it all together - Gorilla Glue and nails can only do so much.

I think we're going to the tractor pulls at the McLean County Fair tomorrow night. It's dollar day so Travis thinks you get in for $1 and everything costs $1. Cheap night of entertainment other than the gas it'll take to get there! Travis was wanting to see the demolition derby, but it's Saturday night at 7:00 which is when the dinner starts for his 10-year class reunion (he's getting so old!). I'm sure I'll be the DD that evening. :o)

All for now!

Future Golf Pro?

You just might be reading the blog of a future golf pro...........YEAH RIGHT! :o) We broke down this past weekend and bought a set of golf clubs for me and broke them in Saturday morning at Wolk Creek. It was a really fun and relaxful morning for us (even though neither of us are that good at it). We signed up for the St. Mary's Golf Outing on August 9th so we thought it'd be a good idea to get some practice in before it rolled around. The kids were hitting some balls around in the yard and really seemed to enjoy it - Kiegan even said he'd like to learn how to golf so we'll see!

Our whole weekend was pretty relaxing. Travis & I rented some movies yesterday afternoon and just stayed home all evening watching them and eating and eating and eating some more. It was nice to just be able to sit and watch an entire movie with NO interruptions! We would both recommend Mr. Woodcock - FUNNY MOVIE!!

Ok - off to bed so that I'm ready for Monday morning....