Labor Day morning, my youngest woke up and looked horrible. He was a strange color of grey that little people should not be. He had been having trouble breathing at night over the weekend, and attributed his color to lack of oxygen. We took him to the ER, and sure enough, his oxygen level was way down. Not asthma this time.... His adenoids were infected, and so swollen, that they were blocking his airway. The ER doctor recommended the surgeon that did her daughter's tonsils, but we had to have a referral just to get into the specialist. Poor little guy started on antibiotics, steroids, decongestants and Tylenol for pain and fever. We got into his regular doctor on Sept 7, sent to see the specialist on Sept 14, and she scheduled surgery on Sept 19. He had his tonsils and adenoids out, and tube put in his ears. I am not sure why he had tubes, he has never had an ear infection, but because the adenoids were so large, it was interfering with the pressure in his ears, and he was showing hearing loss in both ears.

We went for his post-op check-up yesterday, and everything is fine. His hearing in the right ear is borderline, but the audiologist said it will inprove in the next few years. The surgeon was surprised that he was off of his pain meds so quick, but he HATED the taste of them.

I wish I had taken the camera to the hospital with me. His poor little arm was full of puncture marks where they had tried to put in IVs (must have his mother's veins!). And right after surgery, he was holding his dad's hand through the bars on the bed. It was so sad/sweet. He lost 3.5 lbs through this experience, and he only weighed 43 lbs to begin with. Last Friday, he started eating again, and I don't think he has stopped eating since. Still not eating meat, but his big sister didn't eat meat for over a year when she was this age. I have cooked vegetarian before, I can do it again.

Sorry for no picture today... Probably some tomorrow. The little guy had the camera last week, so I have kitten pictures, and a really nice picture of his big sister to share.

Holy Cow! I have gone almost a whole month without posting... SORRY

My latest hairbrain idea. - Since the family cookbook went over so well, I am thinking of writing one of my own. For my first attempt, I am going to put it together like the family one in a 3 ring binder. I am going to start out with our favorite recipes that I make all the time, and then add to it in the sections that are slim. I espeically want to get the cooking times for the fresh vegetables. We only have fresh peas in the spring/early summer and I forget from one year to the next, do you cook peas for 6 minutes, or 12. Same with Brussel sprouts in the fall - I can never remember. Then of course, I can never remember which cookbook has all of the vegetable times in it. Have you noticed that new cookbooks don't have essentials like that? I LOVE my old Betty Crocker, Farm Journal, and Better Homes and Garden Cookbooks from the 1950's

We had our annual "Old Settlers" celebration last weekend. Friday, I had 5 - 13 yr old girls at my house over night to watch the "Cheetah Girls" new movie. The girls made individual pizzas out of biscuit dough and I had all sorts of pizza toppings chopped up for them to use. A good time was had by all of them, even if they were so busy singing Karoke, that they forgot to watch the movie!
They have a kiddie tractor pull every year with pedal tractors. Last year, my youngest had not been prepared, we just dumped him on a tractor and told him to go. This year, I talked to him earlier in the week about what was going to be happening, and for him to try his best, and he might win a ribbon if he was really good. Well, with his cheering section of 13 yr old girls, he was really excited and HE WON his age category.
Friday night, we got a call asking if he wanted to be on a float in the parade on Saturday morning. Well, of course!! Here is a picture of the float. He is Christopher Robin on the far right. He was wearing a red plaid shirt, khaki shorts and red rain boots. He was carrying an umbrella, and had a sign on his back that said "Tut, tut looks like rain" With a bunch of bees on the sign. You can't really see it, but there is a picnic table with Pooh and Tigger and a honey pot and a swing set with Piglet and Eyore. The kids are sitting around a picnic basket that had all the candy in it. They won 1st place in the float division. So, he got a trophy on Friday and a huge blue ribbon on Saturday. Along all the hotdogs over the weekend, it was just a good time to be 4.

Here is my little guy. He swears he is going to be the "toughest Marine ever" when he grows up. He has the stamina and personality for it. (Thank goodness not the language!!)

So, I am not the biggest Carrie Underwood fan, in fact until last weekend, I had only heard of one of her songs and didn't really care for it. Then, last weekend, I heard this fabulous bluesy number that sounded like an old-fashioned torch singer on the stage of a little club. Imagine my surprise when I found out it was Carrie! I know it sounds really violent, but it has such great melody. Here are the lyrics.


Right now he's probably slow dancing with a bleached-blond tramp,
and she's probably getting frisky...
right now, he's probably buying her some fruity little drink cause she can't shoot whiskey...

Right now, he's probably up behind her with a pool-stick,
showing her how to shoot a combo...

And he don't know...

That I dug my key into the side of his pretty little suped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats...
I took a Louisville slugger to both head lights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...

And maybe next time he'll think before he cheats.

Right now, she's probably up singing some
white-trash version of Shania karoke..
Right now, she's probably saying "I'm drunk"
and he's a thinking that he's gonna lucky,
Right now, he's probably dabbing 3 dollars worth of that bathroom Polo...
And he don't know...

That I dug my key into the side of his pretty little suped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats,
I took a Louisville slugger to both head lights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...

And maybe next time he'll think before he cheats.

I might saved a little trouble for the next girl,
Cause the next time that he cheats...

Oh, you know it won't be on me!

Ohh... not on me...
Cause I dug my key into the side of his pretty little suped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats...
I took a Louisville slugger to both head lights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...

Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats.

Ohh.. Maybe next time he'll think before he cheats...

Ohh... before he cheats...

My next big project (I always have at least one MAJOR project a year, plus many many smaller ones) is planning my parents 50th anniversary party. It is in July of 2007, but I will only see my brother once before then, and that is Thanksgiving of this year. The rest of the year, we will e-mail info, but I like face-to-face to get general reactions. Here are my ideas so far:

Anniversary –

1. White house greetings – send inquiry 6 weeks in advance (If you send info to the president, he will send a letter from the White House)

2. Private family dinner Friday night July 20th (NOT PIZZA!!)
a. Red Ox
b. Macomb Dining Company
c. The Pier

3. Anniversary Party - Saturday Afternoon or Sunday afternoon (Their anniversary is on Friday)
a. Invitations
I. JK Creative $130.00 for 500 postcards, we do layout. (picture postcards of their wedding picture and a current picture)
II. check at quick printers in Macomb for comparable pricing
b. Food
I. Cake (Hy-Vee or Phyllis?)
II. Meat/Cheese, Veggie Trays(Family only at the house beforehand?)
III. Nuts
IV. Mints (home made or store bought)
V. Punch (Aunt Avis’s Golden Punch)
VI. Coffee
VII.

c. Favors
I. Lifesavers with custom wrappers
II. Miniature chocolate bars with custom wrappers
III. Napkins with names and dates

d. Decorations
I. Anniversary Banner
II. Table cloths and table skirts
III. Flowers – Indoor Arbor (?)
IV. Picture Display Table
V. Display wedding dress

e. Photographer
I. Jim again
II. Hartman this time?

f. Music
I. CDs of Big Band Swing
II. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. etc.

4. Unique Gifts
a. Scrapbook their existing pictures
b. Stamps.com – Photo stamp of their wedding picture $17.99 per sheet
c. ‘Precious Moments’ 50th anniversary figurines (ebay)
d. Thingsremembered.com 50th Frame or Throw
e.

All other thoughts and ideas would be appreciated. I think if I could pull off a wedding for 400 with only 2 months prep time, this should be spectacular!

-Julie

The cook book is DONE!!

Last August, my mother wanted a family cookbook from her father's family. So, for the past year, I have researched the costs of different types of cookbooks, different publishers, etc.
We came to the conclusion that since we needed less than 100 printed, it made no sense to have them professionally done.
At last year's family reunion, we requested favorite family recipes to be mailed or e-mailed to us, along with family pictures of the orginal 9 brothers and sisters.

Staples had 1/2 inch 3-ring binders at 2 for $4.00. They also had 3-hole punched paper. The recipes that were e-mailed, just had to be cut and pasted. All of the hand written ones, had to be typed in. My husband interspersed all of the recipes with either food related clipart, or family pictures. We had a wonderful color picture of the brothers and sisters taken in 1976 that we used for the front cover. (it was the last year that they were all living). We tried to get wedding pictures of most of them (some of my great-aunts were so cute in the 1920's!) and anniversary pictures for as late as we could. My aunt Helen is 95 now, and she is the only sibling still living she loved the book. She sat in her wheel chair and looked at the pictures for an hour.
Here are the final numbers:
76 Cookbooks
125 pages each
9500 sheets of paper that had to be hand collated.

But, we got them done, and handed out to the families at the reunion. Everyone was most pleased with them. I would undertake a project like that again, but I would set our deadlines up by several weeks!

-Julie

This list was started last week when I was in a terrible place emotionally. However, looking back on it, I think it could be a list that I will add to over the years.

Cleansing and Healing.....

Here is a list of a lot of flawed thinking that I have to get over –

1. If you work hard, your hard work will be appreciated and rewarded. WRONG
2. If you love someone enough, everything will be alright. WRONG
3. Everything works out in the end. WRONG
4. Nice-ness counts for something. WRONG
5. Mean people get theirs in the end. WRONG
6. There is justice in the world (besides on TV) WRONG

Not to be such a downer, but really, by watching TV, aren't we all really led to these conclusions when we are growing up? I am just sorry that I was 32 years old when I learned the hard truth that:
Best Friends lie to you
When the going get tough - you are on your own.
Relatives do not have your best interest at heart
If there is a truth that people don't want to hear, they will not believe it. Even with facts.

Thanks to Rodney Atkins for summing it up so well! -

Well you know those times
When you feel like there's a sign there on your back
Say's I don't mind if ya kick me
Seems like everybody has
Things go from bad to worse
You'd think they can't get worse than that
And then they do

You step off the straight and narrow
And you don't know where you are
Use the needle of your compass
To sew up your broken heart
Ask directions from a genie
In a bottle of Jim Beam
And he lies to You
That's when you learn the truth

If you're going through hell
Keep on going, Don't slow down
If you're scared, don't show it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you're there

Well I been deep down in that darkness
I been down to my last match
Felt a hundered different demons
Breathing fire in my back
And I knew that if I stumbled
I'd fall right into the trap that they were laying

But the good news
Is there's angels everywhere out on the street
Holding out a hand to pull you back upon your feet
The one's that you been dragging for so long
You're on your knees
You might as well be praying

Guess what I'm saying
If you're going through hell
Keep on going, Don't slow down
If you're scared, don't show it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you're there

Yeah, If you're going through hell
Keep on moving, Face that fire
Walk right through it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you're there

If you're going through hell
Keep on going, Don't slow down
If you're scared, don't show it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you're there