I got Beatles Rock Band and other fun gifts!

Here is a nice picture of me, taken by Tara, during a scrapbook mini get away weekend this summer!

I am spending the weekend at a Lactation Education Training through CAPPA.  I am down in Oceanside in a hotel enjoying the quiet and taking the time to update my blog.  For 3 days I am learning about breastfeeding.  My first day was great.  The instructor is very engaging and we are doing a lot of interactive things and I have learned a lot already.

My favorite thing is that we are not nesters.  Some mammals leave their babies places, go off and find food and then come back.  These are animals that tend to need big muscles, think dogs, deer, cows.  So their breastmilk has a LOT of protein and fat to build muscles.  Deer will leave their babies 5-15 hours at a time, but one momma deer stays behind to wet nurse any baby deer that gets hungry.  Dogs will leave for up to 4 hours.

We are primates and are meant to have our babies on us and feed them frequently.  Our main thing we are growing when we are babies is our brains.  So our breastmilk is high in lactose, which helps build up brain matter.  We don’t have as much fat and protein so our babies need to eat more often.   Hence we shouldn’t be nesters, leaving our babies in a “nest” (swing, car seat, crib) we should be carrying our babies more.

Earlier in the week I was talking to Devon and Carson about my upcoming weekend and breastfeeding.  They wondered why they use cow milk for formula.  Devon wanted to know why they don’t use chimpanzee milk to make baby formula as we are more similar to them than cows.  I thought it was a great idea, but then we talked about how hard it would be to milk Chimps and they are too smart for that.  Again, brains versus muscle.

I am enjoying the conference.  Thanks to Jenn and Jenny for watching my boys today!

This could also be called the potential interesting situations that arise when you are a Childbirth Educator.

I recently changed my screen saver to shuffle through pictures in My Pictures Folder.  I didn’t think much of it.  Until today. 

Yesterday I got all jazzed up and made a Power Point Presentation for Class 3, Choices in Childbirth.  I go over the pros and cons of IVs vs Heplocks, Continous Fetal Monitoring vs Intermittent Monitoring, AROM (Artificial Rupture of Membranes – Breaking the water), pushing in Lithotomy Position (no pros there!)  and tons of other choices. 

So I made this new folder in My Pictures labeled Class 3 and have all these interesting pictures in there.  Here are some. 

So today I am doing the dishes and glance over at my computer and see these images coming up.  I just busted up laughing.

For our wedding we got 3 sets of glasses. 

1 was pretty hideous, they looked like they were from the 70’s and were just VERY durable, so the last one broke after about 10 years.

1 set was normal, we still have 1 of those.

Then our Blue Glasses-

Then we got a set of 4 indestructable blue plastic glasses.  They are great!  We somehow broke 2 of them, and then the other night I filled up a glass, put it on my nightstand on some papers and I woke up and the papers were all wet.  There was a leak!  So we are down to 1, which is sad, because we loved these cups!

Here is one on our MESSY table, sadly our table often looks like this.  It is our dumping zone.  Our goal is to find a place for everything and keep the table CLEAN!

I pretty much have done nothing.  The house is a bit out of control.

I started feeling sick with a sore throat on Monday.  I was worried because I had to teach Monday night.  But I took 2 advil and taught.  I survived.

Tuesday I had to pick up the house because Olivia was coming.  But once the house was picked up and I dropped Carson and Bryson off at kids camp for the morning.  Then Devon and I sat and read all morning. I read
Inner Harbor by Nora Roberts

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Just a fun easy read for a quiet sick day at home.

I like this family of characters.

View all my reviews.

Devon read a 2nd book in a trilogy he is reading.

It was so blissfully quiet.  Then the boys came home and we watched Oklahoma.  I took Carson to Kung Fu and Bryson and I hung out at the park.  Then we came home and Carson got Bryson into bed for me.  Helped him into his PJs read a book and tucked him in.

Wed I was feeling a little better, but overdid it.

9 – go to get papers notarized for our refinance.

9:30-10:30 a much needed Target run

11:30 -2:00 park with the Hess family and then the library

3- take Carson to piano, get ice cream with Bryson (shh, don’t tell the other boys) pick Carson up, go to another library, pick up my books on hold. Go through the drive through at El Pollo Loco. Get home at 5:15.

5:40 Drive Devon to Rob’s office so he can take him to the airport, to meet with the Aviation Merit badge counselor and he also got to ride in an open cockpit biplane.

6:20 I arrive home, collapse on the couch with this book

The Actor and the Housewife: A Novel by Shannon Hale

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was an interesting, fun plot. I could really relate to the housewife. It made me laugh out loud. I cried a bit too.

I was a little nervous, worried that her character would let me down, but she didn’t!

Definitely a fun read. Perfect for summer.

View all my reviews.

Carson and Bryson go upstairs to watch Scooby Doo movie. Carson then gets Bryson to bed. Then he sits and reads with me while we wait for Devon and Rob to get home.

Thursday

I was supposed to go to the beach club with the boys.  Instead I sent Bryson to kids camp for the morning.  Jenny was sweet enough to take the big boys to the beach club.  I sat and finished the above mentioned book.  Bryson is now home on the computer and I am typing this.  Waiting for the big boys to return home.

I am still sick, my throat is all scratchy and I am SO tired.  I am proud of myself, becuase I filled the dishwasher and have done 2 loads of laundry!

I have a new laundry tip!  Long ago my friend explained how she had 3 baskets for her family.  As she unloaded the dryer she would fold and sort her laundry into the 3 baskets.  I have been doing that.  But it was a challenge without a laundry room.  I have more of a laundry hall between the garage and the house.  So the baskets would be all over the floor in the halls. 

I was thinking of getting new baskets as ours are 5 years old and breaking when I saw the stackable recycling containers at Target! AHA!  I can sort and keep the floor free of baskets.   So here is my new set up. 

This is the closet door in the laundry room.  The three hooks were originally to hang the baskets on, but that didn’t really work.  So they became a place to hang the clothes as they came out of the dryer.  1 for my clothes,  1 for DH’s and 1 for the boys.

Here are the bins stacked inside themselves in a laundry basket.  I also have 3 buckets that are in the bins, I use these to gather the boys toys which are downstairs and they bring the buckets up to put things away.  Keeping them on top of the dryer keeps the dryer cleaned off.  (can become a hotspot if I am not careful)

 Here are our clothes hanging up.  

 Here are the bins filled with 2 loads of clean, folded laundry.  I have 1 bin for each boy and a bin for Rob and I.  I use the big blue laundry basket for towels and sheets, etc. 

 Here are the bins with clean clothes nestled 2 together with hanging clothes draped on top.  Ready to be brought upstairs and placed in front of boys rooms/put away.

When I am on top of things this works really well.  But like anything that builds up every day, if I get behind it can get overwhelming.  I find when I fold and hang right out of the dryer it is magical.    With my new “laundry baskets” it works even better, no baskets on the floor!

At first I was sad I didn’t read more, but then I realized why…. no plane rides.  I can usually read a book during each plane ride. 

The Mislabeled Child is the non-fiction book I am reading here.  GREAT for understanding my sweet Devon.  I listened to a gifted conference by the authors and a 2E (twice exceptional, meaning gifted with learning issues) conference by them and finally have confirmation that indeed Devon does have dyslexia, because he is gifted and can read at a high level and has great comprehension, it is called stealth dyslexia.  It doesn’t appear as dyslexia, but he has pretty much all the signs of it and I have always thought he did. So this book is a really interesting read.

Same Kind of Different as Me – Wow, this book was really inspriational and amazing.  It demonstrates the power and faith one woman can have.  The strength of marriage and friendship and love.  I think it probably goes up there on my top 5 books everyone should read.  I only had 2 books on that list so far (The Hiding Place and Uncle Tom’s Cabin) but now I have 3. 

The Help -Another great read.  This is set in the 60’s in the south, looking at the black women who were maids in white women’s homes.  They share their stories in a wonderful way.   I loved each character and the whole book.

The Double Bind – Hmmmm, this was a disturbing book.  It was well written and would be a good book club read, because you really want to talk about it afterwards.  BUT, because it is disturbing, I wouldn’t want to tell my friends to read it.  So read at your own risk.  It did make me want to read The Great Gatsby, because it references that book.

Rising Tides – Devon got this for me for Mother’s Day.  I think someone must have brought a lot of used books for the kids to pick from.  He picked me this one because I like plants?  I don’t like plants.  But there was a picutre of plants on the front and apparantly Devon thinks I like plants.  It was a good vacation read.  It helped me stop thinking about The Double Bind book, so it was a good thing.

In May we drove to Sedona, talking and listening to some talks from the TJED conference. 

We got to our hotel and checked in around 8. 

Day 1 was HOT.  We started off our trip trying to get some things situated with our refinance, which included a trip to the bank.  Then we went on a short hike (2 hours).  It was pretty and fun, but a bit too hot.  Then we went back to the Summit to get lunch.  Then off for a drive up a bumpy road in Rob’s new 4×4.  Then dinner at Cafe Jose which was YUMMY! 

Day 2 was great weather.  We decided to do our long hike today and went to the West Fork Trail.  I was navigating and not understanding where we were going, so we drove to the top of the mountain and so we got a later start than we had hoped.  But it was ok.  It was about a 5 hour hike.  It was really beautiful and nice.  Luckily I had brought some hard boiled eggs, so I wasn’t starving.

Then we drove to town and ate at Javelina Cantina, which was reallly good.  Then a trip to the camera store to replace a filter we broke on the camera when Rob dropped the bag by accident.  Then home to rest.

Day 3-5 Hiking and 4 wheeling and eating and resting.   There are so many great ruins to visit here.  We loved Lake Montezuma.  It is just a fantastic area to visit.  We look forward to bringing our boys back. 

Day 6 Another hike, the pool and packing so we could leave to go visit our friends Mike and Melissa.

Overall I have enjoyed vacationing in Sedona.  I would say that the hiking was fun, beautiful landscape.  We didn’t have a day where we just did nothing, which I missed, but I was able to read 4 books and enjoy being with Rob, so I am happy.

Here are a few pictures.

I started working on my 2007-2008 Blog book in January.

I finally finished it today.  I was SO ready to be done.  Mostly because it has been on my to do list and I am just to busy doing other things.

It wanted me to spell check it before I printed it.  So I started that.  But after a few minutes I decided, “Forget that!”

I just wanted it done.  So future generations, please forgive my spelling mistakes.  Apparantly  I spell apparantly wrong a lot.  Even though I apparantly spell it right now, after correcting it a few times in my new blurb book.

One of my friends left this comment on my Math Fact post.

if i haven’t told you, i am so imressed that you are homeschooling.  i think you’re crazy…but i’m very impressed.

Well, just so you all know, I think I am a little crazy!    Also homeschooling isn’t as hard as everyone thinks it is.  Really the hardest part for me is the lack of ME time.  I really like quiet and being alone.  I don’t get as much as that now.   But I know it was the right choice to take Carson out when I did.  So it is worth it!

The plan is he is going back to public school in the fall.  I let him choose and he wants to, so I am all for it!