Will's MRI

Whew- what a long day! Will had his MRI today and I am so glad it's out of the way now. We don't have the results yet, the radiologist will look at it and then forward it to his doctor, who will hopefully call us tomorrow.

My darling friend Roberta watched Amy again for us. I always ask her and I felt bad asking her again. I actually had someone else lined up but that fell through, so back to Roberta I went. I hope this was one of the last times I have to borrow her for that!!!  It was a long time today!

On the way to the office it started pouring down SNOW. Yes, SNOW. It was so fun!! It didn't stick, of course, but it was fun to watch.

Hanging out in the waiting room..... They gave us a buzzer- just like at a restaurant. I had never seen that at a doctor's office before!

In the prep type room. Will hadn't had anything to eat since dinner last night. He was only allowed some juice until 9am this morning and didn't have a nap. So by noon (when we had to be there) he was a little crazy.  We kept trying to occupy him with our phones. Usually it works, this time it didn't.

Then the nurses took him away. It was so sad! Usually I'm pretty strong but it was awful watching someone walk away with your baby!! They put him to sleep, then put an IV in- so that was nice. Everyone was in love with him and Lee and I were grateful to get him back! Had we wanted to give him away, there were many, many takers!

The whole MRI and wake up time took a little over an hour. While in the waiting room, the guy in the picture's phone went off... with a Star Trek ring tone! Lee was really excited.

They came out to tell us they were able to get a good image and said he was really grumpy when he woke up. But that's to be expected- he was hungry, out of sorts and around strangers. A little while later we got to go back and hold him for a while longer. He was out of it. Because he was so mad and grumpy when he first woke up, they had to sedate him a little more to take the edge off.

But we finally got to take him home. Lee went to get Amy from the Stout's and Will and I came home. We curled up on the couch and he slept for about 2 more hours. He woke up happy and hungry. He ate well and had seemed to be his normal self. All in all- it was a good day.... or as good as it can be when having any kind of procedure.

Amy was funny this morning.... she was telling me about frogs and said, "Frogs like the summer. That's when they jump out of the water and onto an iPad...."  I think she's definitely of the 'tech' generation!

Oh and I ate this piece of chocolate just as I was getting into the shower. How did it know?? It's magical!

Dance class and Canning

Last night "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was on tv. We had a little Family Home Evening lesson on Christmas and then geared up to watch it. I read somewhere a fun idea- put the kids in laundry baskets with some popcorn and it'll help them pay attention/sit still. So we tried it out....

It actually did work! It held Will for about 10 minutes- which is a lot for him. Amy stayed curled up in it the whole time. At first Lee kept laughing at me, but then when it worked, he was impressed. They looked so cute in their little baskets. :)

Today was Amy's first day of dance class. And yes, the stain did come out of her leotard! (thank heavens) She was so excited this morning.

She did this picture for her teacher.
All on her own, I was in the shower when she did it. 

She wanted to pose like a ballerina

She did a really great job in class. I had wanted to take a few pictures, but forgot once I was there. Plus, I didn't sit in and watch. (I did peek in on her a few times) I figured if I did, she wouldn't pay attention. Plus, I had Will- and he would definitely be distracting. So I sat in the hall and chatted with the other mom's. They were soooo nice. I don't know why I'm so surprised- I guess I haven't had many interactions with other women, besides those at church. Anyway, we are really excited about Tuesday's now!

I had to run by the store on the way home and saw some candy corn at a high discount. I had been wanting some to can. I know, sounds crazy, huh?? But ever since I went to that awesome food storage seminar earlier this year, my eyes have been opened to all sorts of possibilities. I mean, who wants to survive on wheat and oats?? While you would live, I'd definitely like some treats too! If I'm living on food storage, I'm going to be depressed enough. So sweets would definitely help lessen the depression!

Mom has routinely been giving me things from her house that she doesn't want to take to the next. I told her last time that it was starting to turn into a "give Sarah all my crap" mentality. But since we now have a house, Anna/Stratton's is too small, Ben/Ashely's is too far away and Adam/Lauren already have what they need... I guess I'm it. That's ok, I'm not complaining. I'm getting lots of furniture, food storage (totally excited about that!!) and other random things that I don't have to buy myself. Like this contraption....

A food saver! Mom said that Grandma bought it years ago for her, and she just never used it much. I had no idea she had one! I've been looking at them on ebay for months, and it's only because we didn't have the money to buy one that I didn't get one. I was soooo excited!!! Why, you ask?? Well, it's not for the actual plastic bag sealing part (although I'm sure that'll come in handy with freezer meals), but it's for the nifty jar sealer attachment.

With just a press of a button (and the attachment) you can seal jars... and in them candy, cake mixes, granola bars, etc. And the food will stay good for several years!! Hello possibilities!!

I only had 3 large mouth jars clean (I still have to buy the regular mouth attachment), so I did 2 candy corn and 1 cake mix. And since it's just air sealed, you can reuse the lids (unlike actual canning when you can't reuse them). Anyhow- now my eyes are peeled for discounted candy and other type treats. Sooo glad it's the end of the year when all the candy goes on sale! And I know its "candy" and non-nutritional, but I always feel good when I add things to my food storage.

So that's it for today. We had a fun morning, now its raining again and we are all headed down for rest time. I think it's one of my favorite times of the day! :)

Freezer Day

Saturday was deemed "freezer meal day." When I made them awhile ago, I realized how great it was to have a meal ready to go. Sure, I could just make a double batch of food every night and freeze the extra portion, and I do that from time to time. But making one gigantic kitchen mess and cleaning it all up... all in one day is much easier for me!

Today I enlisted Amy's help.... Will was napping and Lee was doing other stuff. Since I still have my tiny freezer- we couldn't make too many. But thanks to Mom and Dad- we'll soon have a deep freeze chest freezer!! They found an awesome deal and were so kind and generous to donate it to the cause. Unfortunately, it's still in GA. The Christmas decor took presidence last trip... but we hope to go get it soon!

Anyhow- we ended up with 2 lasagnas, 2 alfredo's and 3 burritos. Nice, easy stuff!

Amy was a great mixer. She's mixing ricotta, cottage and parmesian cheeses (with an egg added in- a nice tip from Aunt Lauren!)

She was also my sauce and noodle girl. She was great at it! 4 years old and knows how to make a lasagna. I think I've done my job. :)

Although I wasn't very happy when despite my warning and urging her to change clothes, she got sauce on her new dance leotard!! I was very livid, in fact. So the meals were delayed while I scrubbed and stain removed the sauce. She starts dance on Tuesday- I'll post more pictures of that then.

After the meals were complete, I got the kitchen completely clean. It was wonderful! But then later that night, I saw this recipe for a Never Fail Pie Crust.  Now, I have never made a pie. I've never even considered it. My mom makes great ones, that was ok with me. But lately I've been wanting to do weird things I've always bawked at before. Have I mentioned that I want to attempt a turkey for Christmas Eve dinner???!!! I know...... right!!??!! This pregnancy is doing weird things to me.

Anyhow- I was determined to attempt this pie. I had apples so I looked up an apple pie filling recipe, courtesy of Ms. Paula Dean. I figured if it was Paula's, how could I go wrong?!? So out came all the ingredients..... and a little while later- I had done it!!!

It's only half the size of a regular pie. I didn't have a small pie pan (I do have a regular sized one) and I didn't trust myself enough to use all the ingredients for a large one- what if it didn't turn out!!? Anyway- it wasn't perfect, the crust was a little thick- but I know what I did wrong, so I can avoid that in the future. But other than that, it was surprisingly good!!

Amy approved.

I'm not up to Mom's accomplishment yet, but she's been making them for decade's and this was my first. But maybe with some practice.....! Well, probably not even with that, but at least mine will be edible!

Crafting Time

I started a craft group with friends from church. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. December was a weird month to start since everyone is so busy. But a few people came last night and we had a lot of fun. We made Christmas Countdown's and did some glass etching.

I totally forgot to take more pictures! Everyone's boards came out so cute. Next time I'll remember to take pics.

This morning I attempted to keep crafting with Amy. I saw what looked like an easy way to make homemade Snow globe's on the Best Bites site. Our's turned out nothing like their's. I think we used too much glycerin and too much glitter (I didn't know there was such a thing). So it was kind of a bummer. Only two turned out semi decent, and it's tough to even give them that much credit. Oh well, we had fun... kind of. It was kind of a lot of prep for something that failed.

Little Will is so cute, in many ways, but lately he loves being snuggled in someone's bed. We think it's his attempt to look cute so he doesn't have to sleep in his own. But he climbs into a bed, pulls the covers up, lays down and smiles. This morning it was Amy's bed. He stayed there for the longest time too! It was quite nice.

That's it for us right now. I should probably head into the kitchen and attempt to clean all the crafting disaster. {sigh.}

One Happy Man

Lee has wanted a flat screen tv, FOREVER. Personally, it's cool, but I don't really care that much. I think it's a guy thing. We've saved for one, but something else was always more pressing and the funds went to that instead. We had hopes of getting one in the coming months, but then.....

Uncle Bobby and Karen came to the rescue! They asked if that's what we wanted for an early Christmas/graduation present and of course we said YES. We were anxiously awaiting all day for the UPS man to pull up.... finally around 6:30pm, he did.

(We were watching Alida, so she joined in all the pictures and said "Cheese!!")

Setting it up....

Will loved playing on the huge box. Actually, all the kids did. It was a nice distraction so we could mess with the tv.

When in doubt, have your 18 month old read the instruction manual for you.

We still have some more 'setting up' to do, but the kids were antsy, so we just put it on a cartoon and let them at it. It's pretty cool, I have to admit. Eventually, it will hang over the fireplace, but we need my dad to pay a visit for that one. So until then, it'll just sit on our tv stand.

In other news- I've started Christmas decorating. We were able to get some (not all) of our stuff from Karen's attic at Thanksgiving.... and I went at it. I'm still playing with a few things, but when I get them "just right" I'll post pics.

For now, here's a sneak peek at our tree... or rather 3 (thin) trees.....