Is It Naptime Yet

With wanting to stick to the budget I didn’t go grocery shopping the last week of September even though we needed a few things. I had spent the final part of our grocery budget at Costco. Milk was the main thing we needed. So this last week to make it last we had a lot of oatmeal and the girls got french toast twice within 4 days. We had plenty of eggs and bread, just not a lot of milk.
So yesterday being October 1st, I can’t believe it’s October, I went on one of my normal long shopping trips. First to Food -4-Less, where nonperishables are usually cheaper and then to Smith’s where I can find the store brand bran flakes and shredded wheat that I can’t at Food-4-Less and where dairy is cheaper.
I took the girls along and since Lilah found a penny that I pointed out to her. She was actually very happy and didn’t complain about being tired. Then at Smith’s I let her pick her own yogurt as a reward for behaving. (Before the penny happened and before we even got in the store she started to say she was tired!)
I’ve decided that many people do a month’s worth of shopping on the first day of the month. I saw a lot of people with two shopping carts full of groceries and the lines took forever to get through.
It reminded me of when I would got o the commissary with my mom for our monthly shopping trips for groceries.
It was crazy.
Smith’s was busy but not nearly as bad as Food- 4 -less.

Anyways, I bought a whole chicken and roasted it in my crock pot last night. It is delicious and was perfectly falling off the bones this morning.
I did it during the night so I could cook it on low, as to not rush it, and because I have Lilah’s gymnastics class tonight and I don’t like leaving things like crock pots on when I’m not at home, even if that’s one reason to use it. If a fire is gonna happen I’d like to be here to call the fire department.
I got the idea of roasting the chicken in the crock pot from Sam, and I figured now we have chicken to do whatever we what with. Put it on sandwiches or do a salad.
I feel like I’m finally doing something extra special for my family since they’ll be getting two not usually made dishes in a row.
Monday night I made black bean enchiladas, red peppers were on sale, and tonight we’ll have chicken sandwiches from homemade roasted chicken. This is a lot of cooking for me in two days. We have rice and soup like once a week, or rice and pot pies, or pizza. I cook the same things over and over again, so these dishes are nice changes.

Jon’s diet changes have kinda put me in a funk. I don’t know what to do to spice things up, though I have been making different stir fry’s which we find delicious but Eden does not like. Oh well.
Since the chicken was cooked with the skin it’s slightly fattier than what Jon should eat, but he can still have small amounts and the breast meat is still really good for him.
I’m just happy to do something extra for us.
The chicken was also hormone free and farmed raised so that’s one extra thing I also did. Now I just have to start buying those kind of chicken breast. The frozen ones I get are huge and obviously hormone injected!

Also with trying to save money I also took our coupons. We’ve been getting a condensed version of the coupons you would get in the Sunday paper, so I’ve been cutting the ones I’d use. I’m also keeping the good store coupons that are relevant to what I buy. Like if I buy this brand of soup I will probably buy it again. So I’d rather get a coupon for that brand of soup and not some random thing that’s associated with it. Like you often get store coupons for formula if you buy diapers, or a different brand of diapers.
Anyways. I love to look for the bargains and I’m liking getting the coupons each week in the mail.

Also here’s the recipe for Black Bean enchilada’s, it’s from the Pillsbury cook book. Enjoy, it’s delicious!

Black Bean Enchiladas
prep 20 minutes (ready in 40 minutes)- really it takes an hour

2 (10oz.) cans enchilada sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil
1 onion, sliced separated into rings
1 small red bell pepper, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (15 oz.) cans black beans, drained , rinsed
8 (6 inch) soft corn tortillas, heated
8 oz. (2 cups) shredded colby–monterey jack cheese

1. Heat oven to 425 degreed. Spoon 2/3 cup of the enchilada sauce in bottom of ungreased 12×8 inch (2 quart) baking dish.
2. Heat oil in medium skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add onion, bell pepper and garlic; cook and stir 2-3 minutes or until onion is tender.
3. In medium bowl combine onion mixture and beans; mix well. Spoon about 2 tablespoons beans mixture down center of each tortilla. Top each with 2 tablespoons cheese; roll up. Place, seam side down, over enchilada sauce in baking dish.
4. Spoon remaining enchilada sauce over filled enchiladas. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese.
5. Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

my way- I use regular flour, or whole wheat, tortillas.(If you use larger tortillas use a 13×9 pan.) I also use an added 1/2 green bell pepper and a large red bell pepper so I can have more filling. I also end up using more cheese than the recipe calls for because I love cheese and it balances out the extra filling.

I’ve updated my ‘About‘ page.
I’m sure many of you visit it because you know nothing about me.

Though I’m not sure who visits my blog since only Andrea comments lately.  (Amber what is the secret to keeping hairholders in your girl’s hair?) Though there was much sympathy for Lilah who is mostly all better. I think she’s itchy day in and day out because she wants more bubble gum medicine, AKA dye free Benedryl for children, not that she has any idea what real bubblegum taste like. Though when Lilah does scratch excessively she still gets welts, and I almost took her to the doctor twice this week because I was being paranoid, with good reason mind you. I saw welts and I thought she was getting the hives again, this was Tuesday, two days after the last steroid shot. I gave her Benedryl and the welts went away, but I had to give her Benedryl every 4 to 5 hours to keep her from scratching and causing welts. Now things are  good and she is weaned from all medicine until the next mishap.

Anyways.
If you scroll down the ‘About‘ page is on the right below ‘Pages’ and before the search feature, as of the current blog format, though I’m looking to change things up since fall is here, kinda.

So today I took Lilah to see the nurse practitioner for her second steroid shot. I found out that my pediatrician is moving to Washington and is being a little shady to his patients, as in not telling us. If they get a new physician to take over the office I hope we like him or two that we can find another one we do like. I like Karen, the nurse practitioner, so if she stays there that would be a bonus.

Lilah’s doing OK. Her hands are like little sausages and have swelled up. I feel really bad for them and her.  She is still swollen and has a  lot of hives. Lilah took her shot well and since I went today and spoke to Karen she also explained to me that she feels it is viral since they’ve had several children go through these sever hives. It’s also uncommon for just an allergic reaction to react so severally hive wise. With finding out it was most likely viral, and letting it sink in, I called Julie and told her that I shouldn’t have Naia. I had Naia yesterday so I hope she stays healthy.
I also want to kick myself because I let the girls share a spoon yesterday with a milkshake. I just wasn’t thinking.
I’m hoping no one gets sick that we know, because I wouldn’t want to put anyone else through this.

Lilah also had to get blood drawn so we did that today. She was a real trooper and she didn’t even flinch.
She didn’t make eye contact with the women who drew her blood and shes hasn’t said a word to the nurse practitioner or the regular nurse. I try to tell them she’s like this most of the time with strange people and not to take offense.
Some say it’s kinda good because of the world today.

I’m hoping Lilah gets better soon. As for us I think I’m going to stay home and not do anything so I don’t give it to someone or their children either.
We should know by tomorrow if the blood work shows it is viral.
I just want answers, but I can’t imagine a virus doing all this to my baby.
Since the reaction did come with the use of amoxicillin we can still say not to give it to her because even if it is viral that doesn’t mean the hives weren’t also caused by the medicine. Karen also seemed fine with my desire to not give that family of medicine to my Eden either.

Jon took Lilah to the doctor because she woke up looking like this.

I don’t know what caused it yet, because he’s the one at the doctor’s. I wonder if she was having a reaction to the steroid or if the steroid just wasn’t strong enough to fight off the hives and she’ll need shoots.

When I talked to the nurse she mentioned a little boy who was so far along with hives that he needed steroid shots, so she may be in the same boat, otherwise I’d just think it’s a reaction to the steroids.

All I know is she looked better Wednesday morning after I gave her the first dose of steroid the night before. Later in the day I noticed her eyes were getting puffy. I had given her a second dose that morning. It was near the evening when the third steroid dose was to be administered so I thought she was just needing the medicine. Her welts were also coming back.
I gave her the evening dose of steroid and her face seemed to become inflamed before she even went to bed a couple hours later. When I was putting hydro-cortisone on her face to help the itch I noticed her jaw line was also swollen.
I was mostly just concerned at this point.
Later in the night I looked up some info and found something about angiodema. It worried me because Lilah had swollen eyelids and a swollen jawline. I worried that her breathing might become difficult so she was in bed with me again.
She survived the night. Since she continued to breath just fine and wasn’t in large amounts of pain or discomfort we just waited until 8 am to call the doctor and Jon took her in since I didn’t want to inconvenience Julie again.
So he’s with her and I’m at home worrying.
I haven’t heard anything from him so I’m guessing it’s going as smoothly as to be expected.

I’ve decided that I’m not going to let Eden ever have anything from the penicillin family. This is just too troubling to deal with again.

Update

Jon’s home. Lilah will need a steroid shot every day for 4-5 days it looks like. So I have to travel to Henderson every day. Thankfully they’re going to wave the co-pay, because that would make this ordeal $140-160 alone.

She’s in the second stage of hives, the next stage is where skin comes off or as the nurse said sloughs off. Yuck. It appears that she won’t get to that stage.

Since a little boy recently had the same thing happen to him in their office they’re also testing her urine for a virus, just in case. I’m guessing this sever of a reaction doesn’t happen often, so to have it happen twice within a short time frame is unexpected.

She looks a little better but is still very swollen like this morning.
I think I’ll reschedule the family pictures we’re suppose to have on Wednesday. 🙁

These are the pictures that were shot from Andrea’s baby shower. I took a few but Julie took pictures while Andrea was opening gifts.

Sorry I don’t have a better variety. I was just talking most of the time and I didn’t remember about the camera during the games.

The cake.

The table. I like to have fresh flowers at parties.

(There was more food, but it was on the counter.)

I just thought Eden was cute in this one.

She got lots of onsies.

Did I mention Julie was taking the pictures?

Cards! (Really money!)

The party gang.

Lilah liked the vegetable tray.

This was Andrea telling Brien about all the onsies she got, duplicates included, and him being like yeah, we’ll need a lot of onsies.

More gifts, but what is Julie smiling at?

Oh, Julie’s smiling at her cute baby Naia.

The end.

So Jon’s going to say I’m a total nerd, but I want you’re input, for all those who read my blog, yes I know there are more than two of you, to help me decide what we should wear for our family pictures that I have yet to make an appointment for, but need to so we can get in before the holiday rush. I will do that after I post this blog.
I usually get new shirts for the girls and try to get things that might go with our wardrobe. The problem being that Jon doesn’t have anything that really goes, at least not with what I wanted originally for the photos.
So here are our choices in no particular order.

One

two

three

four

I won’t say what I’m leaning towards.

I bought the girls shirts in pictures 1 and 2 on sale. One is a 5t for Lilah next year and the other is a 2t for Eden because it seems like she doesn’t have a lot of clothes.

The shirts in 3 and 4 I bought with the intention of using them for the pictures and me in orange but I had no idea what to put Jon in and he doesn’t like to buy shirts for these things, so I have to work with what he has. I may end up returning them if we don’t use them for the pictures.

He wanted to put the blue shirt in 1 with our shirts in 3 and 4 and I’m not going for it even if it would be a nice contrast.

So I taught my lesson yesterday and I helped Lilah give her talk.
Now I just have to focus on enrichment and possibly getting costumes made for the girls, Halloween is just around the corner.

Yesterday my lesson was interesting. We had a visitor. Anyone who visits usually go to gospel essentials because of a couple reasons, one to help teach lesser doctrine to those who don’t know the gospel, or receive the milk before the meat, two as to not distract the gospel doctrine class of the topic at hand. It seems a little mean to banish those who have not been members for a year to the gospel essentials class, but I think it’s so we can keep on topic in this class.
A man brought his friend who was Catholic. I have no problems with Catholics and I have no problem with him being in the class. I just thought his beliefs were interesting and to me a little sad.
He gave some input that was a little off topic, well very off topic, but all classes get off topic and he didn’t dominate a lot of time, in fact by the time I would have cut him off he stopped talking. If anyone were to dominate the time of the class I would want to cut them off, so it wasn’t just that he wasn’t Mormon.
During class he mentioned some of his thoughts or beliefs.
What I got out of it was about a certain saint that he believes in. It dealt with the thought that we’re all preordained to go to hell or heaven. We have no say. God just chooses. Those who are going to hell, such as homosexuals, usually have an easy life, he used Elton John as an example. Those who are destined for Heaven need to even out there sins, or pay for them. So they get punished, he used the example of physical ailments and I think even situational things, such as wealth. I interjected that the ailments were to strengthen us, but he said no it was just to balance out what wrong or sins we had done.

I think I mostly found it sad that we’re predetermined for heaven or hell. To me it seems pointless to be either good or bad. Jon mentioned since it doesn’t matter or you have no say where you go it could be good because then you just live you life without worrying about heaven or hell, or you don’t do things out of fear because you’re going there anyways.
I just find that sad to have no say in where you go. Also to be punished physically for sins goes against the New Testament. Such as the story with Christ and the man born blind.

John 9:2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

After class he started talking to me and mentioned how he didn’t want to go into deeper thoughts and how he also believed we have a certain number of sins while here and once we use them up we die.
He used the example of a lot of people coming here to Vegas to gamble, drink and participate in immorality and that he believed about 20% of the people would probably be dead by next year because they’ll use up their sins.
In a way I can see what he says, but I guess it still seems strange that we only get so many sins and for each person it’s different. I suppose it balances out that we’re preordained, so you’re going to Hell but you don’t want to get there too quickly so you don’t sin a lot.

I don’t know many devote catholics. I just found these two beliefs to be so opposite of my own. I’m not sure if since the beliefs came from a saint if you have a choice to believe them or not, or if it’s universally taught within the Catholic church

Jon was looking somewhere and he found that boiling vinegar and water will remove bad scents in the air. I came home one night and he asked if I could tell what he had for dinner. I said no. He was happy to tell me he had had some canned fish which of course canned fish always leaves a yucky scent in the air.
While boiling the vinegar and water it smells like vinegar and water in the house, but once it settles you don’t notice any scent.
Yesterday he had canned fish again for dinner, it kinda made eating french toast a little strange,  and when I came home the fish scent was still overwhelmingly in the house. I made him boil vinegar and water. He had taken the diaper trash out and decided to see if the vinegar and water wouldn’t help with the scent of poop in the pail. So he boiled it and then placed it in a cup inside the diaper pail. It actually worked pretty well. The diaper pail does smell like vinegar but I’d much rather have that scent then the poop. I usually spray it with Lysol and air it out outside to get the scent out, but this was a more natural solution.
We also wrap poopy diapers in grocery bags to help cut done on the scent of the diaper pail. It works pretty well and we don’t have to pay for diaper genie refills.

Vinegar and water a natural neutralizer of odors, who knew.

Lilah wanted to dance but she wouldn’t go out on the floor without me at first.

After a while Lilah was fine with dancing without her mom and even Eden was dancing and having a blast.

Here’s a little clip of them jamming, but a song they knew came on so they actually were just happy for most of it.

Well, I’ve been a little busy with my enrichment calling and with the wedding.
I was at my mom’s house all day Friday. I was sewing, in which Eden’s dress is now done and I have just the hand sewing to do! I do need to sew bows but those are on the bottom of my list of things to do. Julie picked Naia up from my parents and Andrea came into town that afternoon. My Aunt Susan was also in town for a conference so I stayed for dinner Friday night, besides the fact that I didn’t finish putting the zipper in until 5:30 and I knew cereal would be what Jon had for dinner. After dinner I took the girls over to Sears and got a little something for Carolyn’s bridal shower, which was Saturday.
Because of my various forgetfulness I didn’t get the girls home until 9:30 pm and I was grumpy.
I knew Jon would have Saturday with them so I didn’t worry too much about him seeing the girls, though he didn’t see me very much this weekend either.
Saturday was Carolyn’s Bridal shower. I won the game that dealt with who knew the most about Carolyn. 13 out of 20. She’s pretty secretive so I’m proud that I knew/ remembered most of the answers.
Carolyn is my kinda helper/ payee for the baby shower that I’m/ we’re throwing for Andrea. Julie will actually be doing most of the help since Carolyn will be in Maui for a Honeymoon  and then back to work. I’m very grateful for Julie, so far she’s written the invitations and will probably be helping with food. It’s nice to have someone else to help. I know Caorlyn will help where needed, but with the wedding and honeymoon it’s mostly picking up food or a cake that she’d have to worry about.

I’m going  a little nuts with everything I have to worry about. I have to plan my lessons for Lilah’s class and even though we get a few pages with ideas sometimes they’re not as age appropriate and they only really fill up one lesson, in which I have two to worry about. 2 hours can be such a  long time with toddlers. Things you hope to take 10 minutes take 5 and some things that you hope to take 5 take 10. If I have time at the end I usually just dance to various songs with the kids. Sam is also my assistant and is super creative, or at least knows where to go to get great ideas, and has experience teaching, so I’m a little nervous. It’s mostly filling up the whole time I worry about though.

I’m also busy planning/ coordinating a big enrichment, in which the enrichment isn’t that big but the activity that weekend is. I have a hard time delegating. I feel that coordinating and delegating isn’t a job so I volunteer for things that I want done, but only by me. I know, I know,  I need to get better. I have a super great committee who do what they’re suppose to so it’s more a matter of saying yes I have time to do this and I should do this, or no I don’t have time and someone else can do it. I feel a little overwhelmed right now, but that’s because we just had a meeting and this is the first one I’m completely over and it’s a big one. I think I’ll be fine once I get things sorted at a little more.
So the wedding August 18th
Baby Shower September 1st
Enrichment Sept 13th and 15th
The next Enrichment soon after on Nov 8th.
Crazy!