Week with the munchkins, Day 1

After all the things that happened on Monday, we finally got home to our house at 9pm. The girls were so wound up from being at the doctor's office, the hospital and the car for hours. They never really got to play so we knew there was no way they were going to bed soon. We were able to get them to go to bed around 10:30 and luckily, they let us sleep in Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday, I really didn't have anything planned for them. I decided to have in impromptu picnic lunch at the little park down the road for us. And me, as smart as I am, thought that it would be great exercise to walk! Well, the park was a little farther down than I thought it was and it was 100 degrees outside.......again. I should have known this was going bad when I kept hearing, "How much farther? I'm hot!" But I pressed everyone on.

We arrived at the park and ate PB & J sandwiches, bananas, apples and apple juice. I didn't bring enough juice, so the girls were still thirsty after that walk. We convinced the girls to play in the park to expend some energy.

Hailey, the one in the pink, got in a mood and didn't want to play. She went in circles around the pole (no laughing!) most of the time. She retreated to the swings until her sister decided to join her. I did get one picture of her:

I had dressed her in play clothes, so the pants aren't exactly a perfect fit. Excuse Aunt Stephanie's poor taste. Hannah, on the other hand, is pretty good at entertaining herself. She played in the playground and then climbed a tree.

Seriously, how much cuter can she get without teeth? This child is able to eat an apple quickly with no front teeth! I can't even remember those days anymore.

We left the park after a very short play, sweating and thirsty. The walk wasn't too bad on the way back, but we chugged water after we got back into our nice air-conditioned house. The girls spent the rest of the day playing inside. For dinner, I made them artichokes and chicken. They loved peeling away the layers of artichoke leaves, although my floor did not appreciate the mess. We let them watch Tinkerbelle on TV and then sent them to bed and Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Jason got some much needed quiet time.

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Weekend in Boro

We had a very eventful - and scary - weekend. Jason & I were supposed to take our nieces, Hailey and Hannah, back with us on Sunday. However, things didn't go as planned. When we arrived on Friday, we found out that my sister (their mom) was very, very sick. Her entire office staff was out and one was in the hospital. We thought it was the flu, but it ended up being an awful virus. My sis couldn't get out of bed and hallucinated on Thursday night from such a high fever. She talked to grandparents that aren't around anymore. My parents kept the girls at their house while we were there so she could rest.

Friday night was fun! My parents, Jason & I sat on the back porch and watched the girls ride their bikes and play while we drank wine. And we drank lots of wine! Wine tastes so much better when you have good company, a good back porch, and a good breeze. We stayed up really late and all went to bed a little buzzed.

Saturday was Hannah's 7th birthday, so my sister dragged herself out of bed to throw a small family party. We forgot to take pictures...sorry! At some point toward the end of the party, my mom disappeared. We found her asleep in the back bedroom. She caught the bug. Hailey (the older niece) was also sick, so I took her in to have her cough looked at. When we got home, Mom was still not moving well. By Sunday, she stayed in bed and planned to make a doctor's appointment for Monday.

Monday morning came and she was able to make an appointment at 2:45. Jason & I had already planned to take the girls to get their shots for school that same day at 1:30 (it's an hour from my parent's house), but I had Jason stay home so he could drive mom to the doctor. Thank goodness he was there because she passed out in the office and they rushed her to the hospital. She was there for about 8 hours and was treated for dehydration. They ran a lot of different tests on her including at least a CT scan (they thought it might have been a seizure) and a flu test. She was negative for flu and she didn't have anything abnormal with her brain. My Dad sent us back home before she got out so that we wouldn't catch anything.

I felt so guilty for leaving Mom in the hospital even though Dad was there. However, I'm glad none of us caught the bug. Dad caught it and is still running a fever off and on today. Mom is still not up to par, but is better. My sis went back to the doctor today and got a steroid and an inhaler. She was originally diagnosed with bronchitis, but I think she had the bug, too. We came back fairly healthy with the girls just having a little runny nose and cough. Thank goodness we came back that healthy!

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Gone to visit the parents

Well, we're off to visit my parents in the old hometown. We haven't been down there in so long because my parents have come up here a lot recently. I'll be MIA on the blog until Sunday or Monday most likely. We're coming back Sunday with these two monkeys in tow. That's right, Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Jason are braving the kiddos for a week! Will we survive? Stay tuned to find out! Have a great weekend everyone!

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Book Review!

I'm way behind on my book reviews. I've read several good books recently. The first is The Chronicles of Narnia.

Image courtesy of here.

I read this series as a kid once before and loved it. It is a Christian-themed book although I never realized the parallels as a child. I remember loving to read about the Talking Animals and the adventures that the children would have spontaneously. Each book is an easy read for an adult and I breezed through them. Of course, I breeze through books anyway since I can never find a stopping point. I haven't seen the newest movies on these, so I can't tell you how accurate they may be. When I was a kid and we didn't have cable (can you imagine such a thing?), I used to watch Narnia on PBS. I may just like these stories because they put me right back in third of fourth grade when I read them. Worth the read!

The next book I read was Eragon.

Image courtesy of here.

I saw Eragon the movie a couple years ago and surprisingly, really liked it. I didn't even know it was a book first until recently. I had been waiting for a sequel to come out (which will probably never happen) anxiously! This book is about a boy and a dragon egg he found. He learns how to be a dragon Rider and fight for things he believes in. This book was really LONG! Like, somewhere between 700-800 pages long! And it was written by a 19-year-old. Can you believe that? The book was a little hard for me to get into, but once I did, I really enjoyed it. It's very much a mythical fantasy-type book which I normally wouldn't read, but it was good. Be prepared to read an immense amount of detail, making eveyrting the writer talks about easy to picture.

The next book I read was Shopaholic Takes Manhattan.

Image courtesy of here.

I read the first Shopaholic book a few months ago. You can read that review here. When I first started to read this book, I was highly irritated by the silly and flighty ways of lead character Rebecca Bloomwood. I think this was because I had just finished reading two "heavier" books so the switch to a "lighter" read was a bit more difficult. After I eased up and read further in, I became less irritated but still never truly loved the story. It's a typical girl has boy, girl misreads boy, fights with boy and wins boy back. Blah blah blah. It wasn't a bad book, but I definitely wasn't in the mood to read it. I'm not sure I'll keep following this series. But if you like light reads, do give it a try!

The next book in line was The Other Boleyn Girl.

Image courtesy of here.

I LOVED this book. Completely LOVED it. I've haven't read many historical-based books, but this one is a must-read. Never saw the movie, so again, I can't tell you how well it follows, but it can't be as good as the book. It was a nice, long novel that gave insight on how the conversations must have gone between Anne Boleyn, her sister Mary and her brother, George as Anne makes her rise to the throne of King Henry VIII. I couldn't put this book down and even Jason was trying to sneak a read off of my shoulder. The basic history stays true as the author did much research while writing. I highly recommend this book!

The last book I have to talk about is Hide.

Image courtesy of here.

This was another great can't-put-it-down-until-I-finish-book. It's about a girl who's been hiding and running from them her whole life but doesn't know who they are or why she has to hide. This book grips you as soon as you begin the first page and you won't want to put it down until you've read the entire story. I highly recommend this book as well!

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Greek Bulgur Salad With Chicken

This turned out to be such a yummy summer recipe, found online at Cooking Light. It makes a TON and can be used as a stand-alone dish or as a side dish. I think it's even better the next day after all the flavors had melded together. If you've never tried bulgur (and I hadn't), it's kind of like a larger-grained couscous.


Greek Bulgur Salad With Chicken
*makes 10 servings at 1 2/3 cup a piece

Ingredients
4 1/2 cups water
3 cups uncooked bulgur
3/4 fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons), divided
2 teaspoons salt, divided
2 1/2 cups chopped skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken (I used 2 baked chicken breasts)
2 1/2 cups chopped, peeled cucumber
2 cups halved grape tomatoes
1 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup (2 oz) crumbled feta cheese (or as much as you darn well please!)
1/4 cup extravirgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
10 kalamata olives, pitted and chopped (or as much as you darn well please!)

Preparation
Combine water, bulgar, 1/2 cup lemon juice and 1 teaspoon salt in saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Uncover and cool to room temperature.

Combine remaining 1/4 juice, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, and remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Toss to combine. Add cooled bulgur mixture; toss well to combine. Cover and chill.

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Happy Anniversary to Us!

One year ago today, Jason & I exchanged vows......


And rings......


We kissed......


We danced......


We had cake......


And we left to begin our life as husband and wife.......


I love you so much my love. You mean more to me than you know. I look forward to spending the rest of our lives together!

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Cuteness!

Look what was in my in-law's tree!!!!!

Baby raccoons! Aren't they the cutest things ever?!? I just wanted to pick them up and snuggle with them. These two seemed to like to hang out together while this guy was kickin' it by himself pretty far away in some branches:


I'm not sure how Jason spotted either of these. The first two were well above our heads. Jason said he just saw something move out of the corner of his eye. When we realized how small they were, we started looking for the mama in the tree. We never found her, but Jason spotted the third little guy REALLY high above us. You can tell how hard it was to see him since we only got one eye in the picture. He was a sneaky little thing!

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