Paige...

So Paige is my first niece.  I remember about 12 years ago when I found out I was going to be an aunt for the first time how excited I was.  She was the first baby that Josh and I ever babysat overnight, and she was the one that really made me want to have a baby.  Who knows when we would have had kids had it not been for Paige.

When I think of Paige, sometimes I can't help but think of her like this.  With all her little fatness.  Boy did Lucy love her.  It's funny, when I think of Lucy, this is how I think of her, licking all the babies.

But now Paige is growing up, she is now 11 (WHAT!!!), and getting ready to start sixth grade.  She is on vacation with Parker and her dad this week and Jen just emailed me a copy of the Will she left for Jen, just in case her plane goes down.

1. Zero goes to live with Dad. (This is funny because if the plane goes down her Dad is going down with the plane too since they’re together.)
2. Tell everyone that I love them.
3. I want a pink funeral and I want Austin to be there.
4. I hope they find a cure for boob cancer.

 Number 4 is especially funny to me.  With all of my nieces and nephews we have had them saying "Boobies" when we take pictures since they were all old enough to talk.  I am so glad one of her final requests would be to cure breast cancer.

 

On a final very happy note, since I am talking about my nieces and nephews, looks like I get to be an aunt again!  Come February we'll get to have another little baby to love on, thanks to Karen and Shawn.  I have got to start knitting some baby stuff!

Does Penny Like the Pool?

Since we bought the girls their pool, we have gotten Penny in a few times to see if she would like it or not.  Much like with the trampoline, she tends to run around the outside of the pool barking when we are in it and she is not.  We bought her a pink polka dot life jacket and get her in when we all get in, but we could never tell if she really liked it or not.

Yesterday the girls and I were swimming and Penny was doing her usual run around the outside and bark routine.  We didn't think anything of it until Carson saw her standing at the top of the ladder waiting for us to let her in!  I strapped on her life jacket and off she went.  She likes to swim around in a circle and come back to the ladder to rest.  She will put her front paws on one step and even put her back paws on the step below to rest.  It is quite entertaining.

Here she is with her pink polka dot life jacket on...

So Carson had an ear infection this weekend.  So that's both kiddos in less than a week.  We are going to be more diligent with the ear drops from now on.  It's hard to tell her that she can get in the pool but she can't get her head under water.  Although it might be harder to tell the other kid who has healed already that she can't splash her sister while they are in the pool.

I am glad we got the pool for the girls, it's been refreshing with the sweltering heat outside, and entertaining with Penny the Pig Dog becoming an avid swimmer.

My Girls are Coming Home...

My girls went up to West Virginia to visit my aunts over a week ago, nine days ago to be exact.  I missed them, but I was really missing them yesterday.  A day off work and Josh and I really had nothing to do except grocery shopping.  It would have been the perfect day for them to break in the new above ground pool we got them last week as an early birthday present.

Speaking of the new pool, we haven't told them about it and we figured we'd just see how long it takes them to notice it in the back yard.  I am so excited about it, because I know they will be very excited about it!

I talked to them last Tuesday and they were having a great time.  I called on Saturday and they weren't interested in chatting, which is probably a good sign, but it's been a week since I have talked to them.  I talked to Jen this morning when they had gotten past St. Louis and she said they hadn't hardly talked to her at all in the car, they were busy watching their movies.

So now I am excited that they are on their way, I can't wait to see them, but I'm sure I'll be ready to ship them off again at some point! 

Why I am Not a Camper...

So my birthday was last Friday, and for my birthday (and my brother-in-law's birthday) we went camping.  Everyone got to the lake Friday night, and we spent Saturday on the boat.  There was tubing, and wake boarding and some swimming.  Mostly by everyone else but me.

I am not much of a camper, we don't own the supplies to camp and I prefer a nice hotel room or even a cabin.  Overall it was a fun weekend, except I came home with a rash on both my arms.  It is still there today so I want to have it checked out.  It is poison ivy.  Great.  I am getting a prescription for some steroids this afternoon that should clear it up.

I am adding this to my list of why I am not a camper. 

Skinny Bitch

So a friend loaned me her copy of the book "Skinny Bitch", and after reading the first 100 pages yesterday I just had to go buy my own copy.

If you haven't heard of it, check out their website. http://www.skinnybitch.net/

It is definitely eye opening.  I had already stopped eating red meat, after reading "In Defense of Food", but I was still eating chicken and turkey and pork.  Well I am going to have to be meat free now.  The descriptions of how animals in slaughter houses are treated was enough to make my skin cry and I thought I was going to cry.  Just horrible.  I can't just can't be playing a role in that sort of thing.

I went today and bought my own copy of the book, I wanted to be able to get everyone I know to read it, and a vegetarian cookbook that has lots of pictures.  (It was only $5.99 too, score!)  I also bought Martha Stewart's cupcake cookbook, I don't think I could ever be vegan because I need my eggs and butter for my baking!

So I am resolved, no more meat for me.  Not sure if there will be any other great revelations in the other two thirds of the book, but I'll keep you posted!

Two Weeks Without Dairy

I found this article on huffingtonpost.com last week and decided that this is something to consider.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/dairy-free-dairy-6-reason_b_558876.html

Day One:
So the end of the article said, basically, that if you don't believe that dairy is bad for you then give it two weeks.  Go two weeks without dairy and see what it does for you.  Since I have been told to cut back on dairy because of my high cholesterol, I decided to give it a shot.  I think it'll be hard, because I love cheese, and chocolate milk, but let's see how I feel after the two weeks are over.

I do refuse to stop baking though.  I do have an order for cupcakes for Stacy for tomorrow.  Grant's teacher's birthday is tomorrow and I'm going to make some cupcakes for her.  White cake with butter cream frosting.  I do have some sprinkles that I'll probably color them up with.  So excited about baking for someone else!

Two weeks without dairy, I think I can do it.  (I don't think I can give up parmasean cheese though.  We'll see.)  It's all about feeling better and living better.  Let's see how I feel in 14 days.

The Tooth that Would Not Come Out...

Everything about Carson is pokey, I swear she is the pokiest kid in the world.  Even getting in the car takes forever, and she usually has everything she is taking with her separated instead of putting it all in a bad to make it easier.  She comes by it honestly, and I don't mean by me!

So, she had this tooth that has been loose for, I swear, the last six months.  The darn thing just didn't want to come out.  I think Camy has lost about seven teeth in the amount of time it took this one tooth to come out.

We heard her crying in her room last night, and went in to check on her.  She said that the tooth was hurting and she was tired if it just hanging on.  So we looked at it and we tried to figure out exactly where it was still connected, seriously the tooth was barely hanging on.  Josh gets the dental floss and starts making like he's going to tie it around her tooth and even ties one end to the door knob to the bathroom.  Carson was on the verge of freaking out about the whole thing.

I sat with her for a while and tried to get her to calm down.  I did convince her to let me take the dental floss and wrap it around the tooth so I could see where it was still attached.  What was I thinking?  I get it wrapped around and I can't get it off, and I couldn't bring myself to yank the darn thing out!  Luckily, Josh came to the rescue and as I was calming her down he yanked it out.  There was quite a bit of blood, but the tooth fairy came last night and Carson is very excited about the $3 she got. 

This is the Webkinz that she is saving up for, so all this got her one step closer to another stuffed animal.  If only they would always be so happy with such simple things.