My Sooners lost

a great game. Congrats to Florida on a well played game. I'm Sooner born and Sooner bred and when I die I'll be Sooner dead! Go OU!

I'm a blog slacker

It's been crazy busy around here the last few weeks. I'll try to play catch up and then be a better blogger.
I had a MRI done last week on my lower back. We took the results to my chiropractor and the spine specialist. Chiropractor said he didn't see anything spectacular and the specialist said I DO have a bulging disc in my upper, lower lumbar. However, that is not what is causing my pain. The pain is much lower. Near the bone at the bottom of my spine where it connects to my hips. (I hope that made sense) They were prepared to start the epidural steroid injections yesterday but I convinced them I'd like to wait another month, do some water aerobics and strengthening stuff and see where we are in December. The specialist said he'd do the same thing if it were his back. I'm still getting adjusted at the chiropractor three times a week and now I FINALLY get to do some working out. I would love to run or do a spin class but they have both been forbidden at this time.
My oldest child passed the advanced state test last spring and is eligible to participate in the 2009 CTY Talent Search (this is sponsored by Johns Hopkins University). A child must score in the 95th percentile or higher on a reasoning section of a nationally-normed test. We went to meeting last night to find out a little more about all of this. Basically, he will get to take the SCAT in February, be eligible for a rewards ceremony and can take some classes on campus of a nearby college in the summer. Also, he can take a high school credit of Algebra 1 in 7th grade instead of high school. 7th and 8th graders can take the SAT or ACT if they qualify. They gave lots of information to those grades as very few 6th graders qualify for this program. So today I'm a proud mama!
Reports came home last week. Of course, my son did very well, middle child (oldest daughter) is really struggling. She brought home C's and D's. I'm considering pulling her out at the semester and homeschooling her. I've put a LOT of thought into this and think I'm up to the task. If anyone cares to share the views on this, I can handle it and have probably shared your views/thoughts at one time. I'm considering the A beka curriculum since it is accredited and uses a DVD program to teach the assignment. Then there is book work. The youngest child (second daughter) is doing pretty well. If I could just get her to sit still and pay attention she would be at the top of her class. All of her grades have improved since last year. She is graded on a scale of 1-4. She had all 3's except for handwriting which she received a 2. The teacher told the husband she writes like a kindergartener! She can write correctly but her mind races so fast that she writes terribly. We are working on this and seeing great improvement.
College football has been pretty interesting lately. I loved seeing Texas Tech beat Texas! That was a great game and their receivers have made some fantastic catches. My O-state cowboys just couldn't keep up against the Texas Tech Raiders. The next few weeks should be really, really interesting. The thing I love about college football is it all can change in one weekend. Go Cowboys and Sooners!!!
I have been doing some cooking with my AFM's food. I received some split chicken breasts and made a really good baked chicken with them on Sunday. Basically you soak them in buttermilk and dredge them in a mixture of crushed ritz crackers, oatmeal, a dry ranch packet , and instant mashed potato flakes. Place a few pieces of butter in between them in a baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. These were really juicy and flavorful. I served them with skin on mashed potatoes and some steamed cabbage with bacon. Probably not the most healthy meal but it was sure was tasty. I also used my AFM's pork chops. Brined them in a buttermilk, rosemary and thyme mixture for 24 hours and then grilled them. They were really delicious. I served them with some fried potatoes and some mixed vegetables. It's chilly and rainy here today so I'll be using the rest of my split chicken breasts to make a chicken tortilla soup. I decided not to order November's menu. With Thanksgiving this month I wanted to serve MY traditional meal. November's menu had fried chicken bits on it and those things are just evil. Not to mention I have a whole bag unopened in my freezer from September's menu.
My husband has already purchased a 20 lb. turkey for just the five of us. The children mentioned everything they think makes Thanksgiving so I'll be making all of those. I'm thinking I'll post some of their favorites in each post leading up to the big day. I make homemade cinnamon rolls every year for the husband's employees, children's teachers, and my cleaning lady. My recipe makes at least 6 dozen rolls so the entire house will smell like them for days. By the time I get them ready for the oven, I'm tired of them and never eat one.
The December menu at AFM's is up and has some really neat things to choose from so I'll definitely be purchasing it. If you haven't checked them out yet, here is the link: www.angelfoodministries.com
Also, if you any of you read Bigg's blog please say a special prayer for him and HB. They are going through some rough times right now. I've read his blog for what seems like forever and these two are very special people. That's all for now

Weekend Madness and some football too!

Those three hours of studying with middle child on Thursday night paid off in at least one department. Miss M. e-mailed me to say that the daughter made a 100% on her spelling test!!!! Wooohoooooo! You're probably thinking...a spelling test??? But this daughter is a horrible speller and we have to really study hard! I'm so proud of her! We also studied for a content test which was basically a few questions about what country you live in, continent you live on, inalienable rights, a few holidays matched with the month they happen, and naming the oceans. We won't know those test results until Tuesday. The matter test we studied for was postponed but you can never study TOO much, right?
Saturday morning was pick up day for our Angel Food Ministries boxes. The university was also having homecoming which made traffic a bit hectic. We finally arrived and got our boxes. This is such a neat offering to the general public. There are always plenty of men/women to help carry your boxes to your car for you. They all greet you with a smile and in general seem happy to be doing the work of God. I'm inspired each time I go there. I am pleased that this month's menu has NO mini chicken chunks that require frying. I hate to fry food! We bought our usual two main boxes, the fruit and veggie box, and a special meat box. There is a ton of food here for $102. My children were happy about the Hawaiian Punch and I was happy to have the pineapple. Tonight I made the meatloaf with gravy (most of the meals are not prepackaged), Corn au gratin, and mashed potatoes. The potatoes and meatloaf came from my food box. The rest of the ingredients were simple things I had around the house....milk, sour cream, bechamel sauce, butter, salt and pepper.
My oldest daughter (middle child) has come down with the stomach flu. She has been up vomiting since 6:30 a.m. Try telling a sick nine year old that it's Sunday and you want to sleep in! Ughh! The husband took good care of her til I woke up. She's been sick in every room and has finally settled in on the sofa with a cool wash cloth on her forehead and a trash can nearby. I hate it when the kiddos are sick. :(
Our home owners association is most of the time a PITA (pain in the a$$). Today they organized a Halloween parade. We are the new peeps on the block so this our first time doing this. My son is Ozzy Osbourne this year, youngest daughter is a candy corn girl (she chose this costume), and the sick daughter will be Hannah Montana. I'm rolling my eyes just typing Hannah's name! They divide the neighborhood by last names. Some bring snacks and some bring drinks. I was told there are some "adult" drinks as well. I sent the husband and the youngest to the parade while I prepared dinner. Our son is a bit old for a walk through the neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon in costume. He's saving his for the actual night. I believe he's next door playing x-box 360. I made orange cupcakes for the mini party after the parade. Decorated with whipped frosting and sprinkles. Not just any sprinkles but bats and pumpkin sprinkles! No wonder my neighbors calls me Martha!
It's been a pretty quiet day and for that I'm thankful. I wish my little girl felt better. Dinner is made and all that's left to do is get my wonderful son to load the dishwasher and I need to hang some clean laundry. I've started writing a rough draft of the whole who I am, where I come from blog so it'll make it here eventually.
Can someone please beat Texas University??!! Oklahoma State played a fantastic game against them but just couldn't pull it off so Texas remains undefeated. I have yet to see the University of Oklahoma game but did happen to see they won! BOOMER SOONER!
The husband and daughter are still at the parade that started at 4. I should probably go hunt them down and spoil their fun. Hope you've all had a quiet weekend. Bigg, I hope the meds are kicking in and you're feeling better. Bis zum nächsten Mal!

I'm back even though it took me FOREVER to get here!

The funeral was Friday afternoon (October 17). I did NOT get to go home and my sister chose to stay home and attend the funeral. I was really devastated by her decision but since have come to realize she made the right decision. My sister and her husband hold pastorial duties within their church and felt they needed to be at home with our family through this difficult time. I respect them for that but sometimes wish they'd just choose me. I know that's selfish! My aunt has sent me a dvd of the funeral. This seems strange and gross but I'm going to try my best to watch since they've all told me what a beautiful and perfect service it was. I made it very clear to the husband that I do NOT want my funeral video taped!
Now to the birthday party...Friday was extremely difficult for me. I ended up taking a valium about the time my family arrived at the church. I was actually able to focus on finishing up my cake and preparing my home for the party. My daughter had a wonderful time! There were 22 children total and only one boy from her class. I felt so sorry for that boy since I had sent my son to a friend's house for the evening. He was a trooper and survived all those girls chasing him. (In a few years he'll realize just how lucky he was to be the only boy) My cake turned out wonderful! I'm not sure how to get pictures here. I'll work on that with the husband tomorrow. After everyone left but the six girls that were spending the night we did makeovers. The girls seemed to love putting on makeup and having their nails done. I had bought those foam type squares to make picture frames with so the girls decorated them and the husband printed off their group photo so that everyone got to take a picture home of them all made over. We watched movies, ate pizza and popcorn until 3 a.m. I suddenly realized I am no longer in my 20's :( I did survive however. The first girl was wide awake at 7:45 which means by 8 they were all awake and hungry. I served them waffles and sausage links with Sunny D. The last girl left around noon. Which meant I had just enough time to shower and get my girls to Mrs. S's house and get to the airport to get my daughter's last surprise (my sisters arrival). I rushed and made it! So my sister and her husband arrived around 2:20 Saturday afternoon. I hid them in the back of my Tahoe and picked the girls up. They crawled in the truck to find their aunt and uncle in the back. They were so shocked!
Somehow I managed to stay awake the rest of the day and we went to dinner at Bone Fish Grill. My daughter chose the restaurant. The food was excellent but our service was LOUSY! So bad that the manager took half off our meal. That definitely made up for it and we will go there again. If you have Bone Fish in your area, try it! The house salad is wonderful as is the filet. They have a shrimp appetizer with feta cheese and black olives that is really tasty too. My daughter made my sister do her hair and make up for the night. LOL She wore a tiara to dinner which was too cute and drew lots of attention.
Sunday was a busy day as well. Daughter got tons of gift cards and my sister loves to shop! So off to the mall we went. I was proud of the daughter because she chose to get NEEDS instead of wants with her money. (This means my desire to be thrifty is rubbing off on the children even though I've yet to stick to my budget!) She ended up buying a sweatsuit outfit and a jacket at Tarjay, a purse with lip gloss at Claire's (it's hard to do NEEDS there). She still has about $90 to spend but we had shopped till we dropped. I'm sure I'll be suckered into more shopping in the coming weeks. Several gift cards were for Barnes and Noble, Books a Million so that will be on the agenda next. This child loves to read!
Monday we had lunch with the girls at their school. We walked in and smelled cafeteria food and decided to pass on actually eating and just sit with them. They had a good time with their aunt and uncle at school. Once that was over, the sister and bil wanted pizza so we headed to Athens. It's a little greek restaurant here that is known for great pizza. They did not dissapoint. We had a greek salad and a greek pizza. Then it was time to get home to get everyone from the bus stop. I had a chiropractor's appointment at 4. My sister stayed home to do homework with the girls. That was disasterous. My sister has no children and was completely clueless. I returned home to the kids being outside playing and no real homework completed. That evening we chose sushi for dinner. We went to a place called Volcano. It was really good and they accomodated my sisters refusal to eat anything raw. She's from the midwest and weird like that! The bil, husband and I ventured out and ate the raw stuff which was really, really good. The daughters had asian barbecue chicken and chicken teriyaki. After that meal we drove them around to show them all the tunnels and shipyards around here. My bil had never been to the east coast so they wanted to see all that. It was a LONG day but somehow I managed to survive my sleep deprivation to be a good host. Or at least I'd like to believe I was a good host!
My sister being my sister booked the earliest flight she could for Tuesday morning. We were up at 4 a.m. and out the door by 5 so they could be at the airport by 5:30. I dropped them off and returned home to the comfort of my bed! I slept all day yesterday. FINALLY! I so needed some rest. I didn't get out of bed til the kids were arriving home from school. I even went back to bed after they were all home. I got up about 6 and made them dinner(LOL the husband brought home Arby's) and started homework. We all made it to bed before 10 and I actually slept all night last night too.
My chiropractor (pyrocractor is what my girls call him) is doing a new protocol on my sciatic nerve as of Monday. It is really working. My pain level has gone from 7-9 to 3-5. It's amazing. Of course I missed my physical therapy appointment yesterday due to sleep so we'll see how I am doing tomorrow after pt. The chiropractor has suggested that I go ahead with the MRI when I see the spine specialist on November 5. That will be most of the discussion that day I'm sure.
Today is normally the husband's day off. The owner of his company has been in town since Sunday so he's not been off since last Wednesday. I'm truly in need of some down time with the husband. He hopes to have tomorrow off so hopefully I'll figure out how to post some pictures here and scan my daughter's Glamour Shots for an email to my father.
This post wouldn't be complete if I didn't speak a little football talk. My Sooners fell to Texas last week but pulled off a win this week. Last week Oklahoma State won against Missouri which moved them into the top ten. This weekend will be a great weekend for Oklahoma football!
I plan to do some posting with background information in it so that you all will feel like you know who I am, why I'm the way I am and all that stuff soon. Until then...much love!

Bedrest HA HA HA

I've had physical therapy for two consecutive days. Yesterday they had me walk on the treadmill VERY slowly for six minutes, do some rubber band stretches and then some muscle stimulation. Seemed very easy at the time since less than two months ago I was training for a 5k. Well, my back felt much different than my head. I was up almost all night in pain. I tried very hard not to wake the husband and think I succeeded. Although he's extremely pissed off at me now. You see I saw the PT today and I could barely walk into the office. They didn't ask me to rate my pain on their scale as you could see it on my face. No stretches for me today. Just ice and muscle stimulation which gave me very little relief. So the diagnosis is BEDREST! Yes, you read that right and I'm still laughing my a$$ off. I'm the mother of three children under the age of 11. I tried explaining this and they told me it was time for me to learn to delegate! I did come home, eat some lunch, take some pain meds, and crawl into bed for a good two hours. Of course with the birthday party approaching people were calling all afternoon to RSVP. I did rest a little. The kids came home and because it's the weekend they want to play outside. I tried explaining to my neighbor (who speaks very little english) that I'm on bedrest and if my daughters aren't behaving to send them home. I not really sure how much she understood of that conversation but the grand daughters said it was fine so I came home. This is where I made the husband mad. He expected me to come inside, go back to bed and rest. I came inside but chose to wrap some more presents, post my very short blog, pick up the kitchen and have girl conversation with my youngest daughter. Since the husband works such long hours most of our conversations happen on msn. He told me to take the _________ (insert maiden name) stubborness away because he's really tired of trying to explain to me that I have to listen to the doctors if I want to get well. After I laughed my a$$ off I explained to him that my job in this life is to take care of him and our offspring. That this makes me feel whole and complete. Without laundry, dishes, cooking, cleaning, I don't know who I am. I do realize as a woman I can be anything I want, I have chosen at this time in my life to be a homemaker, mom and wife. I call this the domestic events coordinator. He was quick to tell me who I was: STUBBORN AS HE LL! There was a lot more to the conversation but it got pretty sappy so I won't bore ya with all that. I love him and he loves me. We are soulmates and this too shall pass.
So tomorrow is Oklahoma football and the husband took the day off. This will be the first game of the season that we've watched in real time. Normally we tivo the games and watch them once he's home from work. It's Oklahoma Sooners vs. Texas Longhorns. This game normally determines who wins the Big 12 South. We are pretty stoked since the Sooners are ranked #1 in the nation! Boomer Sooner!!!
I think I mentioned before that my father sent cash for my middle daughters birthday and said, "make this a birthday she'll never forget". Well, I think I'm accomplishing that. Wednesday I took her to Glamour Shots for a makeover and photo shoot. It took about 3 hours but the pictures turned out fantastic! She is beautiful without all that hair and make up but they really captured her personality in these pictures. The pictures will be mailed to our home in 7-10 days. During one of the clothing changes I told her that her grandfather had given this to her for birthday. She almost cried and I had to fan her tears away. She called my father and told him he was the best grandpa ever! Awww girls just melt their daddy and grandpa's heart. It was a fun day for us girls.
Unfortunately I was in a lot of pain towards the end of the photo shoot. I refuse to take pain meds and drive with my children in the car so it was pretty bad. In my rush to get home (with the husband 5 cars behind me) I went through a yellow/red light. When I entered the intersection the light was yellow but turned red while I was in the middle. A police officer was sitting at the intersection. I knew I was busted as soon as he hit his lights. So I got a ticket for disregarding a red light. I called today and the fine is $166. I can see my insurance premium going up already. I tend to have a lead foot so I'm just glad I wasn't speeding. LOL I was pretty pissed at myself. Hey, we've all ran a red light in our life, I just happened to get caught.
I think I've pretty much blown the budget all together for this month but I'm going to try harder next month. This is a work in progress! I will get better! I haven't cooked much of the food in our AFM's box this week. I'm in pain so we've cheated and ordered take out many nights. I do have a pork tenderloin defrosted for tomorrow. The husband follows directions well so I'm sure he'll be doing most of the cooking. I'm thinking a pecan crusted tenderloin, roasted asparagus, and some kind of fruit salad for a dessert. We are suppose to start decorating the dummy cakes on Sunday. Not sure how I'm suppose to do that on bed rest but maybe the husband will cut me a break and let me help. I at least want to make the lady bugs, butterflies, snails, flowers and leaves from fondant. Fondant is like play-doh for adults. It's edible but NOT tasty. I hope everyone has a peaceful weekend! Tschüß

I'll try to remember to blog about my new physical therapist. It's eery how much we have in common!

A lesson learned

First off...
NEVER take the husband or children to the grocery store while trying to live on a budget. My goal was to get only the things on my list (about $40) for dinners this week. Easy to do as I didn't need much. Two children and a husband=$120 grocery bill. Yes folks, I'm off to a horrible start here but I'm sure they'll enjoy all their extra goodies. But what they don't know is that they will NOT be going to the grocery store in the future!
On to football..
Yesterday I posted that my Sooners were ranked #4. The husband quickly corrected me that they were ranked #2. After the game last night the University of Oklahoma Sooners are ranked #1!!!! We are an excited bunch around here today!

Anyone else excited about fall programming? Desperate Housewives premieres tonight so I will be forcing the husband to watch with me. A nice, quiet evening is much needed around here.

Food and football go hand in hand

So today I picked up my first Angel Food Ministries box. I must say I was very impressed with the organization and the amount of food I received. The main box cost me $30 (I ordered 2) and has a ton of food in it. I opted to buy the grill box for this month ($20)and the fruit and veggie box($19). So I've spent $100 and should be able to feed my crew for about three weeks. I'll get back to you on the quality and how long it lasts the five of us. Yes, they are a ministry but noone shoved their beliefs down my throat. The best part is "If you eat, you qualify". Here's the link:
www.angelfoodministries.com
I must mention a little college football. I grew up an Oklahoma State fan but I married a University of Oklahoma alumni so I now bleed crimson and cream. Poor University of Southern California lost and is no longer ranked #1. This makes me happy and is great news for my Sooners who are currently ranked #4. It's time to whip up some football food and settle in with the husband for some OU football. Boomer Sooner!