The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back

I have debated whether or not to post this. This is first and formost a recipe blog and I know you are coming for that. However, it is also a little of my life and what's going on. I've already shared with you about my Dad's cancer and my Father-in-law's car accident, and how each of those events sent us into shock and sadness.

Today I've decided to be blunt in desperation. This might be the straw that breaks me.

Today I am reeling.

Today I am in the hospital with my sweet baby girl, our youngest one, the two year old, she of the Sesame Street party. She has been diagnosed with kidney cancer.

We came to the emergency dept
and we now reside in the oncology ward.

Shock.

We would love to have your prayers for our little girl. We are depending on God and the amazing doctors to pull her through this. Yesterday was removal of her kidney and all went well. Today is recovering from surgery and getting rid of some of those tubes. Down the road is potentially chemo.

A share this burden with you as a reminder to give all of your loved ones a hug today and let them know how special they are.

You just never know what might happen.

Happy Anniversary to Me

In honor of my darling husband, since we are celebrating nine wonderful married years together today, I have updated my "About Me" page with all of the delicious details he said I should share with you. I told him no one would be interested, but he assures me you want to know. After nine years I have learned sometimes he might be right.

Our Baby is Here!

We officially have four children as of Saturday. All went well with our darling daughter's delivery and we are enjoying time at home getting to know one another. I love this precious newborn stage! Well, except for the sleepless nights. Thank you for all of your well wishes, I'll be up and posting again soon.

This is Why we have Three (almost four) Kids

This is why we have three - now almost four- kids. Who else thinks putting underwear on your head is this cool?? (Well except maybe at a frat party.) I love being a mom!

There's a What in My Attic?

The children were all nestled in their beds

with visions of swimming pools dancing in their heads,

when what did my husband and I hear??

Something making noise in the attic, not a squirrel, oh dear.

Brave husband of mine,

opened the attic door to aim his flashlight's shine

on a poor little brown bat,

he was just stuck in the stair slat.

Well MacGyver being the man of the hour

grabbed a towel to protect himself from the bat's flying power.

After securing the little lost thing

freed him into the night air so the bat could sing,

the praises of the man who saved him from the scary place,

and fly into the dark with all his sonar grace.

Bad poetry aside, this was an unusual distraction one night that I just had to share with you all. I wasn't sure what to do with the fuzzy little scared bat we discovered. I just knew I wanted to save it because bats are my soulmates when it comes to mosquito death and destruction. I believe all mosquitoes should be eliminated and they do their best to oblige! Thankfully being married to MacGyver has it privileges. He knew exactly what to do and I thought I'd pass it one to you.

Bats are the largest consumers of insects including: moths and beetles, mosquitoes, termites, flying ants, some will even eat scorpions and centipedes. Cave bats will eat about 3,000 mosquitoes per night. If you ever spot a bat, be sure to tell your kids how wonderful these animals really are. If you are lucky enough to get one in your house, be gentle and careful. They are very shy creatures and will bite to protect themselves. Wrap them in a large bath towel and set the towel down outside carefully unwrapping them. The bat will take off like a shot. At dusk you can spot them by their erratic flying patterns as they zoom around eating insects.

You can even build a bat house to attract these beneficial creatures to your house. See here for instructions on how to create your bat house. We have one up in our yard. We always get asked about our unusual "bird house".

If you'd like to see masses of bats in action, Alabama is a great place and close by. Check out this website for cave recommendations. It's incredible to see so many bats coming out of the cave at dusk. Your kids will love it! We went to the Blowing Wind cave one time and it was an amazing site. Like I said, anything that can take out 600 mosquitoes an hour is on my good list!

Marriage Planning Weekend

My husband and I are involved in a wonderful Sunday school class that is led by some incredibly smart people. These folks are all a little farther along in their lives than we are. Where we have young kids and we are "newly" married, their kids are grown and their marriages more seasoned. These are the kind of people you want to learn from because they have already been there and done that.

More than once, the leaders have talked about their "planning weekends". They take a whole weekend and work through a goal setting questionnaire to map out their year. Many of them have been doing this for a while and said it really has helped them be purposeful in their decision making and direction. Being a Type A person (as is my hubbie) this sounded right up my alley. Plan out our lives (okay maybe only a year) in a weekend?? I'm in!

Car Seat Fallout

This is not pretty, not appetizing, but surely I'm not the only one who has experienced this??? I cleaned out the carseats today and when I was finished shaking, banging and dumping, this is what I found. Dried string cheese, raisins, pretzels, Cheerios, the ubiquitous Goldfish, and TONS of hair barrettes. Here I was thinking the barrettes were all being lost at preschool. Noooooo, they had all fallen into the carseat black hole. Tell me I'm not alone.

Metal Head

Who needs toys when you have metal bowls. Do you think he was going for the army man look or construction worker?

Cherry Blossoms

I will forever have a special place in my heart for Cherry Blossoms. The ring of them around the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC is beautiful. What an incredible gift from Japan in 1912. If you can ever time a visit to DC in the spring, check out the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which is educational and fun (like DC in general). I'm thrilled we have our very own Cherry Blossom tree in our backyard. It's really wonderful when it starts "snowing" petals.  Such a fleeting and fabulous show of nature.

The King of Snakes

Yes, among the other animals we own, we do have a snake. It's a ball python and he's about 12 years old (for some reason, people really like to know how old he is) anyway, this post is not about our snake Einstein, but about the King snake we found just as we were moving. My husband knows a lot about snakes, well he knows a lot about animals in general. He spotted this snake and brought it to our new house so the kids could see it. As you can see Super Bear was thrilled! I know some of you are wondering what this has to do with anything. Well, I just wanted to share a picture of the King snake so if you EVER see one, you don't kill it. This is the most incredible snake of them all. They eat other snakes, including poisonous ones like rattlesnakes. This is the snake that you WANT to have around, because it won't harm you it will protect you. I know some of you really don't like snakes, but please don't kill everyone you see.  Okay, I promise no more snake posts :)