What's For Dinner?

9:27 AM Edit This 1 Comment »
Last night I had no idea, it was Billy's bday and I wanted it to be special. I got home and flung open the fridge, freezer, and cupboards searching for something, anything to fix. My cupboards were nearly bare and the fridge had an odd assortment of veggies from the farmer's market. So I did what any crazy lady would do and I made up a recipe and hoped for the best. lol

I layered some boneless skinless chicken breast cutlets, cabbage, tomatoes, and green peppers in a baking dish and topped it with a weird marinade of soy sauce, worcestshire sauce, water, cajun seasoning, sea salt, brown sugar, and lemon pepper and threw it in the oven. An hour later we had, well something. Actually it was really really good but the cajun seasoning made it too hot for Betsy and Liam to enjoy although Alan proclaimed it "Dishes bass"(translation: delicious bass, you know from Napolean Dynomite). Billy really liked it so I guess that's what matters. :)

I am waaaaayy overdue for a long grocery shopping trip to stock up on the essentials. So last night was fun we just all hung out watching silly YouTube clips and Alan dance. We talked about our plans for the weekend and how Betsy was going to miss great family time to go to a concert with her friends. :P Betsy played the violin beautifully with Alan sadly saying "Bye song" on her breaks. After the kids went home we cleaned up a bit and called it an early night. So it wasn't a huge party or anything special but it was really nice.

This morning Alan was completely naked but luckily he had not made a huge mess as his diaper was only wet and laying in the floor. :) We rushed around to leave early as I had an early meeting and managed to leave just on time and without taking the trash to the curb. :( Oh well the weekend is almost here and I am ready.

Happy Birthday Billy!

9:47 AM Edit This 1 Comment »
Today is Billy's 33rd birthday. It started out wonderful, I snuck out of bed and woke up Alan trying to get him to say "Happy Birthday Daddy!" He climbed into bed with Billy, crawled on top of him and took his face in his hands exclaiming "Appy ithday!" too cute! He then gave Billy real kisses on his cheek, something he has NEVER done, mommy got a couple too. It was amazing.

We don't have plans really but we do have Betsy and Liam tonight and will probably go to the park for some "funning". I have no idea why Alan calls it that but it's cute.

The long weekend will be nice but we have absolutely no plans other than my Mom and Dad maybe coming on Sunday. I hope they do, our families really don't get the chance to come see us. It's been since last December since my Mom and Dad have made it up and over a year since Daddy has. Billy's parents were in Topeka when his Grandma moved here last November I think but we didn't really get a chance to visit.

I think that's my biggest regret. Our kiddos don't have their family around them, Alan doesn't even really know either of our parents. He knows my sister and CJ and their girls and sees lots of pictures of Quintin, Kaden, Gabe, and Ashton but he's mostly on his own. :(

Thankfully Billy's Grandma is in Topeka and he adores her. We haven't seen her as much as we should though with Billy working odd hours at the library and her own very busy schedule. :) I hope that soon we will be able to get out more and see everyone. We owe Brandon and Ashley like 3 cancelled visits and I would love to make it home somewhere for the holidays.

Anyway I am supposed to be hard at work so I should probably start doing that. :P

Have a great Wednesday!

Summer

"You're Nonnie!"

4:25 PM Edit This 0 Comments »
That is the exclamation Alan is using more and more frequently. At first it was just directed at the dog and used mostly appropriately when she was naughty, now anyone is fair game. Just now I was "very nonnie" and had to "go go go go to bed" because I refused to produce grapes out of thin air. Two year olds really are a handful, it's so hard not to laugh when he does things like that, I don't want to reinforce it but it's so darn cute.

Potty training has pretty much come to a complete halt. For several weeks he was super excited and wanted to use his potty chair all the time, mostly just to sit on. Now he won't even get close to it except the rare occasion when he sits until he has to go and then demands a diaper. Crazy.

He has started sort of changing his own diapers which is mostly not a pretty thing. As soon as he's wet or poopy our very independent child takes the diaper off, flings it down, and marches off naked to find a new one. He puts the new one between his legs and comes to me to fasten it. When it's just a wet diaper it's not a big deal but sometimes......

In other news Billy really is loving his new job. He has his first big assignment to finish by Monday which is a redesign of the www.tscpl.org home page. Alan also loves Daddy's new job since I get off at 4 we are usually at the library a good half hour before Billy gets off. They have a really nice kids place and he loves it. He's always the center of attention with the older kids. Last week a little girl said to me, "Your little boy is so cute. I'm only seven but I've seen lots of little boys and I know when they're cute." I love talking to kids. :) Plus I completely agree with her.

I can't post pics because we don't have a digital camera at the moment. :( I wish I could, Alan is changing and growing so fast and so are Betsy and Liam.

Betsy is in 8th grade this year and will get her learner's permit in November, she is already starting the job hunt. She got her hair cut short and dyed red it's really cute. She wore it in a faux hawk yesterday and Billy and I thought it was cute, I'm sure to her chagrin. She is becoming more and more challenging. When she tells us things it's almost always presented as a challenge for us to disagree with her. :) Guess she has the teenage thing down and from what I've heard may be taking after her Daddy.

Liam is in 4th grade and is growing so much! He is really excited to be back in school and is already planning on being on the honor roll all year, something I'm sure he'll achieve.

I've been super busy with my job, my friend Brent and I are starting trainings for Transitional Living Skills Specialists to work with our consumers who have Traumatic Brain Injuries. I'm really excited about that because I love to train and to talk to people in that sort of forum.

I've been reading the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and while it is slow going because it requires my full attention, I'm really enjoying it. It's refreshing to hear someone be able to eloquently explain the beliefs that I hold. He is a great writer and though it waxes a little too philosophical at times for my taste, it's probably my favorite book this year.

I guess that's about it I hope everyone is doing great.

~Summer

Starting Over

9:09 AM Edit This 0 Comments »
So this blog was titled "Rampant Emotion" and was a private place for me to write about everything that I didn't want to share with anyone. Then my sister in law made her really great blog subscription only which meant that to see it I had to use my google id. I couldn't comment on her blog without other people being able to see that I had this blog so I changed it, made it public, and deleted all of the hundreds of unhappy posts. :)

I guess that's probably a good thing, one less place to ruminate on things I hate can't be bad right? So for the very few people that had a link to this blog, Amber and Ashley probably, surprise, I'm starting over.