4 months?

I can't believe....ok, maybe I can....that it's been 4 months since my last post! Sheesh. A few things to note....

1. We've been going to Church. I love it. It's so hard when you get out of the 'habit' of going to church, but we've been going for about a month now. We missed last week because the girls and I were getting over colds (still snotty, etc.) and Adam and I had a funeral to go to. I don't know if we're ready to call it 'Home' yet, but we'll see.

2. Life with 2 is busy! Life with a crawling baby is even busier!

3. We're great. Adam is just getting dumped with loads of work. He has all of his normal work and was just presented with a big project. He has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders right now!

4. Renee is such an awesome big sister and helper. She (usually) has a good attitude and really really really loves her sister. We really try to give her attention....individual attention....and make her feel important. We've been doing 'school' maybe once or twice a week, I try not to push it too much as her attention/patience is short. We're talking about preschool. She probably watches way too much tv. She loves reading (being read to). She's very into coloring and writing 'letters' right now. She draws (a friend of mine coined the phrase) potato people. Her hair is so long and curly, and she's getting so tall.

5. June is still growing, though I think since she started crawling she's kinda' leveled off. She's only about 19lbs right now, at 9 months. She's a fast crawler, she is constantly pulling herself up and cruising. She loves to hold your hands and 'walk'. She waves all the time, she claps, and she sings. She is such a happy baby. She's also a snuggler. Renee was not a snuggler, so it's a pretty sweet treat when June is hugging us. She absolutely refused to eat veggies. When we first started rice cereal (mixed with breast milk) at 6 months she liked it....twice. After that it was such a fight to get her to eat. Anything. We tried sweet potatoes, yams, carrots, peas, bananas. All of a sudden, it was like a switch was flipped! She can't get enough food! Now she eats, and loves, all of the food above! Oh, she loves baby mum mum's too. She still won't eat the rice cereal though, so the breast milk will just be for bottles.

6. The newest member of the family was born on March 2nd! Corbin Sager came in at 8lbs 14oz and 21 inches! Big boy! I've only seen him a few times, with being busy and sick it makes it hard. :-(

7. My hard drive is still dead. Really really dead. My friend's dad had it last, and recently told me he cannot fix it. I'm still going to hang onto it. Someday we'll retrieve the photos on it.

8. My sciatic just started acting up today. Oh my gosh this sucks!

9. I am so done with the animals. I'm done with the cats. They're fat and lazy. They sleep, make messes, they suck up money. Kimber is mostly outside now, she does come in at night and during the day when it's cold, but she loves being outside. She 'goes' in the yard, which is tricky, I have to search for her piles....so annoying. Recon is still sweet and fat. He makes a mess of the litter though, I think he's OCD, he digs in the box for 10 minutes and makes a mess of litter outside the box. He loves to eat and give love, but that's all he's good for. I'm done. Echo is a good girl. She's a very lazy dog. I've done a really good job keeping her 'droppings' picked up, but I still don't like the idea of her tracking dirt in and out, and the slobber! Oh the slobber! Maybe I'll feel better about the fur babies when June is up off of her hands and knees! Oh, and I've recently been told my house smells like 'animals'. Argh! Hate that.

10. We're talking about taking a trip to Minnesota this year. It's Adam's maternal grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary! Looking forward to it!

First Ear Infection

Yesterday when Renee woke up at 6am with an ear infection Adam wanted to comfort her by using the cotton ball with warm olive oil trick. Well he couldn't find a cotton ball, so what's the next best thing? That's right, a tampon! When he told me I pictured a tampon sticking out of her ear with the string dangling! Adam was much smarter than that though, he tore it up to make a cotton ball!! ♥ that Daddy!

The poor thing was in so much pain, we took her to the ER. I was going to try to keep it under control until we could go to her Dr. on Monday, but my sister made a good point....we sit in the ER for 3 hours (& pay the $100), or she suffers for the next 30 something hours until Monday. They gave her some Amoxicilin, Motrin, anti-nausea, and some numbing drops for inside her ear. Within 30 - 40 minutes she was a totally different kid (as in, back to normal)!

She fell asleep (after take some Tylenol) on the heater vent.

She hates taking medicine, especially when she has to drink it out of a cup, so the nurse let me use a syringe. She did the Amoxicilin ok, complained a bit, but still took it. Then they gave her an anti-nausea tablet (which just dissolved on her tongue), then came the motrin. Oh man she did not want to take it. She absolutely refused! She was turning away, crying, begging, telling me 'no, I don't want'. When the nurse asked if she wanted her to help with it Renee told her, 'I don't want you to do anything to me!!' Whoa! That is not my kid. I tried a little more when the nurse finally suggested she take it through the syringe, or we could give her a shot. Her little mouth popped right open! She still didn't like it, but that worked. I used it again this morning for her 2nd dose of Amoxicilin (the nurse said I could). They also gave her some numbing drops for inside her ear. While we were waiting I was watching for a reaction to the Amoxicilin because Adam had an allergic reaction when he was young, thankfully, Renee did not. She ended up asking for food (we brought crackers), water, and was humming Christmas songs by the time they were re-checking her. The Nurse Practitioner let us go with out having to wait another hour (or more) to see a doctor. When we came home, she went straight to bed and slept so well.

When I checked on her before I went to bed she was just soaking with sweat. I had given her the rice sock (warmed up) for her ear, but it was too hot so she just wanted to hold it. Well, it just cooked her under her blankets. So, I changed her out of her warm jammies. When she got up this morning and saw herself in the mirror she asked, 'When did I get these jammies on?' She's too cute!

This pic is from this morning, eating breakfast, watching 'How To Train Your Dragon', feeling SO much better!

Sweetie Girls

Still waiting on the external hard drive. It's with a friend's dad right now.

Meanwhile, enjoy the cutest girls EVER!



ps. These hats were made by my sister's sis-in-law. She has a facebook fan page called FuneeJello Crochet Hats. Click on the name to go to the page. The hats are of the highest quality, they're super cute, she makes them for boys and girls, and they're super affordable!

Pumpkin Torte

SO delicious, in fact, that I request this instead of cake for my birthday!

Pumpkin Torte

24 Crushed Graham Crackers (3 1/2 cups)
1/3 c. Sugar
1 c. Butter
*Mix & Press into 9X13 pan

2 Eggs beaten
3/4 c. Sugar
8oz. Cream Cheese
*Beat together & pour over crust
Bake @ 350 for 20 min. (Let cool)

2 c. Pumpkin (Libby's Canned Pumpkin)
3 Egg yolks (save the whites for later)
1/2 c. Sugar
1/2 c. Milk
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 Tbsp. Cinnamon
*Combine all ingredients in pot, cook until thick on stove top, remove from heat

1 Envelope Plain Gelatin (Knox, flavorless)
1/4 c. Cold Water
*Dissolve Gel in water & add to Pumpkin mixture, let cool

3 Egg Whites
1/4 c. Sugar
*Beat egg whites & sugar together. Fold into pumpkin mixture. Pour over cooled/baked crust. Top with Whipped Cream (1/2 pint......I prefer Cool Whip).
Sprinkle with desired topping (cinnamon, nuts, etc.)

Refrigerate until chilled and ENJOY! Yummo!!

Still trying to save it!

Eastwind was not able to fix the hard drive. Basically, I'm told it needs to be taken apart and the files (which are only pictures) manually retrieved. They're telling me it has to be done in a 'clean room' and that it would cost thousands of dollars! Argh!! My last hope is the computer forensics guy with the county where I used to work. A couple of friends have used him, and I guess he's really good, and charges a fair price. I sent him an email, so hopefully he'll be getting back to me soon!

If he can't help, I'll loose March 2010 thru early August 2010. So so sad. That's the end of my pregnancy, all of my pregnant pictures, a few birthdays, my baby shower, my pregnancy videos, June's birth, and June's first month of life. I think I'll go cry again. :-(

Does anyone know of anyone else? Advice? Referrals??

Wait

We'll have to wait for the BIRTHday post. My pictures aren't available....lost? :-(

My external hard drive isn't working. Adam is going to take it to Eastwind (the computer place his work uses) to see if they can physically open it and retrieve my pics.

If that doesn't work, I'll try the Computer Forensics guy with the county (where I used to work). If he can't do it....I'm screwed.

No time, no time

I don't have time for anything really. I updated my blog background, played around with the colors, made a couple of tickers (on the right....that don't match)...aaaaannnnd the Milk Monster is ready to eat!

BIRTH-day post coming soon enough......yeah, we'll see.