7 Quick Takes ;) - July 5, 2013

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Just the 3 of us!

Yesterday was the 4th of July. Independence Day. We didn't have our 2 older boys with us, so it was just Jason, Jackson and I. After a light lunch, we went to Great Lakes Crossing and walked around for a couple of hours. Jack LOVED the animals at Bass Pro Shops. He was pointing at them and trying to name them. Even the fish were just the most amazing thing to him! We decided to have dinner at Toby Keith's I <3 this bar and grill. It was pretty good. I ended up ordering a half-rack of St. Louis style ribs, baked beans and sweet potato tots.

We didn't go see fireworks last night, but we sure did hear them. Our dog is a scaredy-cat and spent the whole night whimpering and whining. I can't wait till people are done shooting them off... 
Actually since Monday, we've just been kind of not doing a whole lot. Jason has had class most evenings, so Jack and I have been spending time together.

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Technology growing pains...

While at the mall, we passed the Verizon Wireless store. My Droid X2 has been acting up for the last couple of months. Missing texts, not dialing, dropping calls, the screen freezing up, having to do a hard reset by removing the battery. It has gotten quite irritating. I'd already gone over once to the store nearest to our house, but the customer service rep was less than helpful (kind but unable to offer me a replacement). So when Jason suggested stopping in to this store, I wasn't exactly enthusiastic. However, the very nice lady looked up our information and found that not only do we have insurance, but also the extended warranty, meaning they would replace my phone with something NEWER, of equal or better value! For FREE! And it won't change our plan or "renew" our contract so we won't lose our current unlimited data. I should be getting my brand new Droid RAZR M on either Monday or Tuesday! It looks pretty sweet. Smaller phone, but all screen, so it's actually a bigger screen, lighter, faster, 4G, and I won't lose my apps. I'm pretty thrilled to say the least.

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From me to you! 

I want to let people know that if you get a message from me on Facebook, I'm not spamming you, nor am I just trying to bug you or sell to you. I'm genuinely reaching out to help others. My thought is this: If I don't reach out to so-and-so and they DO want help reaching their goals, I'll never know, nor will they know I want to help them. If I do reach out, and they don't need or want help, at least they know I care, and if they ever need support, that I'm there. Also maybe they know somebody that wants or needs assistance. So please don't mind my messages. If it's not of interest to you, a quick no thanks would be grand, but if you forget or don't have a minute, I understand. Just know that it's not to bother you or because I think you are in particular need of something. I figure all of us could use some support at sometime or another. :) Thanks for your understanding!!!

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It's all relative

You don't realize how much you are alike (and different at the same time!) until you spend a lot of time with family members. This past weekend, after dropping the older boys off, I picked my mom up and we drove down to Columbus. We stayed at my sister Heather's house for the weekend, and while it was fun, it did get a little, ahem, tense? sometimes. Really it was over silly stuff, and most of it was myself overreacting. I do want to apologize though, again. Love you!! We threw her a bridal shower, and even though no family from out of town came in (...), we still had a good time and made the most of it. Jackson had a blast running around with all the "little" girls that were there. They ranged from 4-12, I think? Oh my gosh, he was so funny. Back at the house, he'd chase the dogs, yelling "dog" or "gigi" (one of Heather and Matt's pups names). Jack loved that they were almost all smaller than him.

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Shoe important!
 

Looking for boots for the wedding party proved fruitful. We found a pair all of us girls liked, though a different color we originally talked about. We did have to go online to order them (planning to do so this weekend actually) and found a better deal too! I promised I would share a picture if it was alright with the bride-to-be and she obliged :)

Justin Boots Red Torino

On top of finding those, yesterday proved fruitful too. I found a new pair of tennis shoes for exercise, walking and hopefully, eventually, running! They are Asics, very cute, comfortable and not terribly expensive. I guess, after reading the description on the site linked below, they are technically trail-running shoes, but whatever ;)

Asics GEL-Venture 3

I'm still on the lookout for a good pair of tennis shoes for everyday wear to replace my 4 year old Sketchers shape-ups that I love but are worn out... I did find a pair of Sketchers D'Lites that I like, but wanted to price them elsewhere before I got them. These look and feel good, and even though they are actually considered "athletic training shoes", I could wear them everyday, with jeans or whatever.

I'm not much of a shoe or fashion person, but since I'm losing weight now, I need to start slowly replacing my clothes with things that fit. I may need a fashion advisor... anybody want the job? LOL.

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Finding myself in my hobbies is a chore in itself

I got married pretty young and never really developed a sense of "self", so to speak. I didn't really have any hobbies or at least I didn't really grow them? As I build this blog, and grow as a person, I want to find new things to do. Photographing things has been fun, but I always seem to put it away and never learn more, or I forget my camera and miss out on opportune shots!

I have tried learning to knit, and while I did successfully make a hat, I just don't seem to take the time to work on my projects!

Excuse after excuse, really. I have got to stop that.

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Kicking the Summer Bucket List starts...

NOW! Well actually tomorrow. Well, technically, it already did a few weeks ago, BUT we only did a few simple, already scheduled things. Now it's time to hit it and hit it HARD! Ethan and Alex will be excited to get moving on it and start doing some of the fun things we have listed. I think first thing we should cross off is making homemade donuts. A couple of weeks ago, we found a BabyCakes donut maker on clearance at Meijer and snagged it. Sunday morning would be a great day to do this :) I will try to remember to snap some pics of the process and the aftermath! I'm thinking using our whole wheat pancake batter recipe, just a bit thicker might work? Any thoughts? I'd like to make them a healthy version. They are basically baked, not fried, and we have tons of King Arthur's white whole wheat flour, and fresh berries we could add. We'll see how they turn out!

Thanks for reading!

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7 Quick Takes, #3 - Music Edition

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Alex, E and a friend are doing a dance for the school's talent show. They are going to dress up as "pillow people" and dance to Cha Cha Slide by D.J. Casper. If you've ever seen any of the videos of kids or teachers doing "pillow people" on youtube, you know how funny and cute this is. The 3 of them were supposed to start practicing today, but Alex isnt feeling well. He's got a sinus infection. :(

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I was flipping channels in the car yesterday and ran across a good station. They were playing Pink Floyd "The Wall". Is it just me, or do you sing along, and all the while use that British accent that you don't actually have? LOL. Maybe it really is just me...

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We also listened to Guns N' Roses, which made me think back to when I was little and my sister Heather liked that kind of music. I did somewhat too when I got a little older (I'm a child of the '80's and 90's so I listened to a little "hair" metal, some heavy metal, some "grunge" - think Nirvana - and NKOTB when they were big the first time around. Joey was my crush, his blue eyes, and he was the youngest, only 16, so being 10/11 it seemed feasible to me, LOL). Anyway, it just made me think of how much changes over time. People's style - clothing, music, hair (!!) - all for the better in this case ;) I wish I could find a good picture of Heather from the late '80's early '90's, maybe even with me to share. I'm 6 years younger than her so we didn't "hang out" much but still. My other sister Linda was a HUGE New Kids fan. I remember she did the nicest thing for me for my 10th birthday. I had a slumber party and she took all of her NKOTB posters and decorated my bedroom with them and other things as a surprise, and my friends all signed one of those huge birthday cards with a picture of the guys on it - I'm talking like 2 feet tall! It was the best birthday party ever as a kid!

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If I see one more McDonald's commercial with the fish singing, I may lose it. However, I did show my 14 month old the original fish sandwich commercial with the big talking fish. My older two used to laugh so hard at it, and he definitely followed suit with that! He was cracking up! 

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Alex is learning to play the recorder in music this year. He's got the B-A-G down pretty good. I'm glad he's enjoying music class.  

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E likes to hum. A lot. I know that it's a "stim", most likely. However, it certainly gets somewhat annoying. I have to remind him to stop. He's getting better. He also likes to sing in the bathroom. It doesn't matter if he's just in there for a minute to wash his hands, or if he's showering. That's actually kind of cute, unless it's after his brother is in bed. Their room shares a wall with the bathroom and he doesn't always remember to keep the volume down. Still though, I do like hearing him sing and he sings the songs at Mass very nicely!

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I will leave you with this:

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7 Quick Takes #2

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I'm looking forward to this weekend. We aren't doing much of anything tomorrow, but Sunday is going to be a fun, busy day. Ethan is in the regional bee for the Scripp's National Spelling Bee and if he wins, he goes on to the National Bee in Washington, DC. Alex is attending the Blue and Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts and will get (hopefully) his bobcat and wolf badges and possible his gold and first silver arrow points. He's super excited about it. Jason talked to his mom last night and they are going to come up and visit for the day. Jason and F-I-L will go with Alex, and M-I-L, Jack and I will go with Ethan, since the events are at the same time. Exciting!

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 We've got a cold bug going around here. First, Jason, who hardly ever gets sick, came down with it a few days ago, but is feeling much better now. Then I started feeling not so great, first with a stuffy nose, aches, and just kind of yucky feeling. Now I'm pretty much just coughing and a bit stuffy. Last night, Baby Jack started coughing some and has a runny nose. :( This is probably his first real cold, though he had a stuffy nose for a couple of days a while back. I'm just hoping that he's better quickly and that E and A don't get sick.

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The second trimester at school is over next week and we have conferences. I like that I can go online and keep track of their grades, so there's no shockers on the grade cards. Right now, they are doing good. Alex has all A's and E has mostly A's and B's with a C in Art. I'll be glad when Art is over for him, because his perfectionism holds him back so much in there. He's assigned Spanish next trimester, which I hope he enjoys. Alex has Spanish, too, but goes all year since he's only in elementary (3rd). Talent show is coming up at the end of March, right before Spring Break.

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Speaking of Ethan, we've been having a lot of frustration lately, to the point of him being self-injurious. He'll pinch his cheeks, smack himself, bang his head with a book, he even poked himself in the leg with mechanical pencil. No amount of telling him not to seemed to be working. So I offered him some incentive. Earn a star for each day of no hurting himself, and a second star for following along with class (he has a tendency to go ahead in the subject, or finish early and then find something else to do) and collect 40 stars. At that point, he can pick out a (up to $15) video game. So far, he's had two great days in a row. We'll see if the bribe incentive works...

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Jason has to go out of town for work, starting March 3 but he'll be back the 8th, thankfully. He gets to go to Ft. Worth, TX to meet with the big bosses. It should be an interesting week around here.

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 Thanks to a good friend who told me about them, I bought some dye-free suckers and gummy bears at Meijer (local grocery store). They are Yum Earth brand, and even though they are on clearance and we probably won't be able to get them there for much longer, I'm pretty excited! The suckers are pretty good - I especially like the watermelon flavor and the boys liked them a lot. They have yet to try the gummy bears, but I ate a pack. They are pretty good flavor-wise, but kind of hard/sticky, not really sure how to explain it. They don't remind me of the softer versions I'm used to, I guess. But none-the-less, they aren't bad at all! I'm sure the kids will enjoy them as a treat.

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I played my flute the other day for the first time in a while and it was nice. I want to get into playing more often. I was even thinking of looking into a local community band that is through the community college, maybe in the fall. It might be fun! If not, at least I have quite a few decent pieces of music laying around here and the boys always love to hear me play. :)

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7 Quick Takes Friday, #1 :)

This is my first time joining in on Quick Takes, so you'll have to forgive me. I'm not sure if I'm doing it right ;) I've seen it several times before and it looked like fun. 

 

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 I joined Instagram on Wednesday. I saw a link-up on Facebook for Catholic Sistas to their Lenten photo challenge and thought "How neat it would be to join in!" I love to take photos and I'm trying to grow in my faith so this goes hand-in-hand with both. You can follow me on Instagram. My username is growingintome. :)

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Baby J went to bed early last night but woke up around 10 and was wide awake till after midnight. He didn't eat a lot at dinner and even though he had nursed right before he fell asleep around 7:30, he was hungry. I gave him one of those baby smoothie things and he seemed happier. But he didn't want to go back to sleep, or be held. After a little while of playing, he didn't really know what he wanted. Just about midnight, he laid down on the living room floor and just crashed out. It was really sweet. Of course, by that point, I couldn't fall asleep and I never went to bed until 2:45 :-o Talk about a tired mama this morning!

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Speaking of Baby J, and nursing, I think he's starting to slowly wean himself. It makes me sad and happy all at the same time. E and A both were formula fed after a few short weeks of struggling with breastfeeding, so this is a much longer time, being over 13 months now. It's been a really amazing journey, even with a few hiccups in the beginning. Having support and help has really made a difference, and he and I have such a wonderful bond and experience. Nursing a toddler is definitely different than nursing an infant, and I love the way his face lights up when I recognize what he wants and mama's milk makes him happy, healthy and full. I love that I can give him that and that he can play with daddy and still bond with him. That's been a journey in it's own right.

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I'm babysitting today. 2 little girls, one that's 11 and in 6th grade with E, and was in his class last year, and one who is 6. They are usually over here on Wednesdays for a couple of hours after school. It's been very interesting to see the differences and likenesses between girls and boys. I'm not used to having girls around :) It's been kind of nice to have some other girls around, plus it's done wonders for my boys' social skills, especially E.

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Ash Wednesday ended up being a long day. We didn't make it to morning Mass, and then by the time dinner was finished, and everybody was done with homework, I had lost track of time, so we didn't make to evening services either :( The boys have Catechism class tomorrow and we are going to make it to Mass at some point this weekend. It's been difficult taking the 3 boys myself but when we make it, it's so worth the effort. 

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I'm still doing The 6 Ingredient Challenge and this week's writing prompt asks what new foods/recipes we are trying, so I'm eager to find at least a couple of new foods AND recipes. Join in over at Hobo Mama and Anktangle.

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There's a talent show coming up at the boys' school and they are doing a skit/dance with friend. Have you seen "pillow people"? It's really cute. I can't wait to see them do it. We've just got to get their costumes together and have them practice the dance. We're using the song "Cha Cha Slide 2.0" by DJ Casper, so it should be fairly easy to learn. I just hope they enjoy themselves. :)

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