LIFE Blood Drive

For those of you who live around here or are friends with me on Facebook, you may have already seen this, however for those who aren't aware, here's the information.

A wonderful, brave young man by the name of Eric, at the ripe old age of 27, has recently relapsed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia for the 5th time. He received the news a day or so after returning from his honeymoon with his beautiful (and super strong) wife, Cari. I encourage everyone to check out his homepage to read more about his incredible story and the wonderful support group this young couple has. A link to his page can be found to the right.

Anyway, to the point of my post. A blood drive is being held for LIFE in Two Rivers on the morning of August 20. I know many of you do not live around here, but for those who may be within an hour or so driving distance, I encourage you to sign up and donate!

Because Eric is facing the possibility of his 3rd stem cell transplant (and because you can help a lot of other people, too) you should also consider becoming a potential marrow donor. To learn more go to http://www.marrow.org/.

Good luck Eric! Everyone is fighting for you, even when you don't have the strength. We're all pulling for you and for Cari. She's the best!! Please let us know if you need anything (and where I can get a sticker for my car!!).

The Great Soup Project!!

So I was contemplating whether to do this again or not. I did it last year before Clara was born so that we'd have food already made. The last time I did this I think I made 5-6 different soups that I could divide up into 2 quart jars each. One quart jar is enough of a meal for the two of us, especially when paired with some yummy biscuits!

So, I've decided to do this again this year. It'll be easier for us since Adam is going to be in school 2 days a week all fall/winter and I have a class every Tuesday night from 6-9 from the end of August until November. Some of our evenings are going to be quite hectic!

Now comes the fun part-deciding which recipes to make and finding the time to do ALL that cooking!! Last year my mom came over one afternoon and helped. I think this time I may do 2 different cooking sessions just so I don't go nuts!! Last year I made Summer Corn Chowder, Southwest Chili, Minestrone, Broccoli Cheese, and one more that I can't think of off hand. I want to do the Summer Corn Chowder and Southwest Chili again. Those were my favorites. Time to get out my giant soup cook book, I guess!

Stay tuned to find out which ones I decided to make! Maybe I'll even post some pictures!

Looking a little different around here!

So, as it happens from time to time, I got bored with the look of my blog and decided to re-vamp it. The only thing I'm still not happy with is the picture at the top. I would like it more centered. If there's anyone out there who knows how to do this in Blogger and can help an HTML-handicapped lady fix this, let me know!! I also changed the look of the tickers. I also edited the blogs I'm following.
I added Mama G over at Growing up Geeky to the list today…something that was WAY overdue! Go check her out! She has great weekly posts with the cutest internet finds in the world of Geekdom. I'm about to head over that way and try out one the new features on her blog. She also does great giveaways! And if you're a mom who has a blog or even a pregnancy blog, stop over there on Tuesdays and sign up for Toddle Along Tuesdays. It's fun and you can find lots of new blogs to read!
Other than that, I'm just finishing up my last day of work before I'm off for a couple days. I'm excited! Working 12 hours 4 days in a row is exhausting! And I miss my family. I have my final dental appointment on Tuesday. I'll be getting my implant seated finally! No more treatment partial! I can't wait to see how it looks. Hopefully everything works out the way it's supposed to. I've been looking forward to this day for a very long time! Tuesday is also the last day of the semester. YAY!!! I'm really excited about this. No more school for a while! Paying the student loans back is going to suck big time, but we'll figure everything out. I don't expect to be buying much of anything with tax return money anytime soon. We'll be using it to pay off as much debt as we can before Adam finishes with Bellin.


Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm still working on Clara's 9-month survey. I'll finish and post it once we go to her well-baby visit on the 22^nd, which I'll be attending solo since Adam will be back to school by then. Should be interesting! I can't wait for her to show off all her new skills for the doctor! He hasn't seen her since her 6-month well-baby visit!


Ta ta for now! Don't forget to go visit Growing up Geeky!

Forgive me!!

It's Thursday and I've forgotten to post again!!

Yesterday was Wednesday-weigh in day. I'm happy to report I've neither gained nor lost this week! Holding steady. Things are REALLY insane around our house right now.

Adam's finished with school for the semester. He's going back in the Fall-4 classes. Should be interesting, to say the least. I, on the other hand, have decided to skip the fall semester and be finished with school for the time being. It's going to be difficult enough to watch Clara on my days off and work around babysitting needs while Adam's at Bellin full-time without having to worry about school on top of everything else.

We're also working on a big project that I'll talk more about in the coming weeks.

What else are we up to this month? This coming Monday I'll be getting my implant finished. Yay!! I can't wait! It's been a long road, and I'm pretty sure I'm not done fighting with the insurance company just yet, either. I've also got my friend Melissa's bridal shower coming up towards the end of the month. I'm excited to see her again! I haven't seen her in quite some time as she's been busy finishing up her schooling and moving into her brand new house!

Next month is our 2nd annual Labor Day picnic at our house. I think we'd better get working on the organization of this, PRONTO!  Also, it's Adam's, Jessi's and Steff's birthdays! Adam and I are talking about taking the Badger over to Michigan for his birthday weekend, but we shall see how finances work out. I think it'll be the first trip for all 3 of us!

Anyway, stay tuned for more exciting adventures!

WW Wednesday...

Just a quick update weight-wise. Since I have reached my goal weight, WW has now put me on "maintenance" which gives me more daily points. It's nice and they say that you should use maintenance to stay within 2lbs of your goal weight. I managed to lose another .4 today  which now puts me at 2lbs under. I like knowing that I have a buffer and I'm really happy with my success.:-)

In other news, today has been quite the stressful day. There's really a lot of things that sort of all went bad ay once so I'll spare you the deets, but suffice it to say I can't wait to get home to my hubby and cute little munchkin who always seems to be able to brighten my darkest moods with her toothy little grin.
Just finishing up with summer semester. I have one paper to write for my CJ class and then I'm done. I have considerably more for math, but as of August 5th I'll be finished. I'm looking forward to my couple of weeks off. I just wish I had off work as well.

8-month Survey

Monthly Survey

1. How old is baby? 8 months (8 months, 2 weeks and 6 days)
   
2. Stats:
   1. Weight: 21 lbs! (with clothes & diaper on)
   2. Height:
   3. Clothes size: 9-12 month mostly. Definitely 12 mos for pants.
   4. Diaper size: Still 3's, but might be moving up to 4's before the end of next month.
   5. Hair color: Turning blonde!
   6. Eye color: Still a beautiful blue like her Momma's.
   7. Anything else?
3. Milestones:
   1. Teething: Has 2 teeth. One top front is coming through as we speak. Working on 2-3 more.
   2. Talking: All.the.time. Seriously, the only time she's quiet is if she's sleeping or getting into trouble. J
   3. Rolling: Both ways.
   4. Walking: Not on her own, but she holds onto things and walks around them.
   5. Crawling: Everywhere, and quickly! Especially after the dog's toys.
   6. Anything else? She's really into self-feeding right now. We've been trying to give her more finger foods. Still not much success with a sippy.
4. Things she likes:
   1. Toys: Her Leapfrog activity table, books, her paci…a lot of things that aren't hers like the dog's toys, the remote control, our cell phones, Adam's hat/sunglasses, shoes, etc. LOL
   2. Books: Likes her Baby Einstein animals book, also the color one. Need to get more board books.
   3. Songs: Whatever Daddy sings to her when she's upset. She quiets right down when he sings to her.
   4. Other activities: She loves going outside. She also loves her swimming classes, going to either of the grandmas' houses, going shopping with Mommy & Daddy, and playing with Scooter.
5. Things she dislikes: Sitting still in a chair/car seat. Being told she can't stand up in the tub (first real temper tantrum the other night).
6. Sleeping: Much better! Sleeps through the night most nights…until 7-8am. Naps still aren't real great. She fights a lot but finally goes down. Sometimes she'll take a longer one in the morning and a real short one in the afternoon.
7. Eating: She's into self-feeding. We've been giving her puffs & canned vegetables that are finger-sized along with her purees. The goal is to get her mostly to feed herself, but we're still struggling with taste/texture issue. Raspberries were a big fail the other day but the carrots & peas went well.
8. Nicknames: No new ones. Still calling her the same ones, though Muffin (at least for me) has made a reappearance after a brief hiatus.
9. Things we're looking forward to next month: Her 9-month well-baby check-up is at the end of August. Hoping to make another foray to the zoo, we've just been waiting for the temps to come down a bit! It's been really hot here lately! Daddy & I will both be off of school for the month of August so we'll have more time to spend as a family. We'll have to find some fun things to do.
10. How I like motherhood:
    1. Likes: I love love love seeing her personality emerging more and more every day. She's so much more interactive than she had been. My favorite is when she's laughing and wrinkles her nose way up. It's so cute! I also love to watch her explore new things.

Dislikes: That she's growing up too fast! I often wonder who that little person in my living room is that is playing with my baby's toys!

Late WW Wednesday and new project

I know, it's Friday. I'm late again, but we were having such a wonderful time at home on my days off that I didn't want to spend time on the computer.

So first of all, I'm down 1.8 from last week, which puts me UNDER my goal weight! I'm really excited. I hope I can maintain this weight loss. :) I've been doing really well keeping my snacking to a minimum and I've also tried to not snack before bed. Sometimes I can't help it, but for the most part once I eat dinner I'm done eating for the night. Woohoo!

Secondly, my project. I was cruising around TheBump.com and found a post on these little bags you can make up to take along for your kids that have things like toys, games, and books in them. They're great for Dr. visits, car trips, etc. I think I'm going to work on making some age-appropriate items for our own bags. The blogger who originally posted it used soft pencil cases with clear fronts. I think this is a good way to go because they're durable but thin and handy for throwing into a diaper bag, etc. Here's the original post: they're called busy bags. Looks like I'll be making a trip to Wal-mart next weekend!

Speaking of next weekend, it's our first wedding anniversary!! I can't believe how quickly the first year  has flown by. Of course, I shouldn't be surprised since I was pregnant for half of it and then our baby took up the rest, but we're definitely happy. :) We're looking at spending our first anniversary getting tattooed. I'm excited about that, too. We're also looking into planning some date time every week, just the 2 of us. It's going to be really important that we not lose sight of each other, especially once Adam gets into Bellin in January. Our schedules are going to be rather frantic. We'll make the best of it, and we know there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm going to be working on Clara's 8-month survey post and getting a good picture of her for it, too! I know, she's almost 9 months (lol) but I'll be doing her 9-month survey towards the end of the month when she goes to her 9-month well baby check-up.

Stay tuned!