Monday, March 30, 2009

My Body, The Traitor

So lately I have had a sneaking suspicion that something is not right with my body. I won't get too technical but to sum it up I believe I have all the symptoms of being lactose intolerant. And never have I realized just how much dairy I take in daily, until I tried to cut it out of my diet.

I have started everyday that I can remember with a bowl of cereal, recently I switched to coffee mugs to better control my portions, and this requires milk. No biggie. I just switched to soy milk, which I occasionally drank in college because I thought it was yummy. So nothing new there. But now I must buy three types of milk every grocery trip. We have whole milk for Matthew, skim for Devon and now light soy for me. Cha-ching!

Going on we look at lunch. I usually just make a sandwich or eat left overs from the night before. Well, they make soy cheese, which I tried the shredded version in my enchiladas last week and I didn't taste a difference, but then again they were drowned in green chili sauce. I'm a little nervous about sliced soy cheese. There's not much to a sandwich to hide the taste if it's weird. So I could just not put cheese on my sandwiches. Well, that just stinks.

Dinner. This one is tougher because it effects the whole family. How do I make my beloved lasagna? Cheese ravioli? I love cheese the most out of all the dairy options. I just recently fell in love with feta. It's amazing, but I sprinkled a little on my salad tonight, hoping feta would maybe be an exception and right now my tummy is telling me "No. It's not an exception!" So I am sad, and in pain.

So now, I am definitely mad at my body. What brought on this sudden change? Why are you punishing me? *pouting*

Friday, March 27, 2009

The Mind of a Five Year Old

So today as we, Devon, Matthew and I, were walking back from checking the mail Devon noticed that her shadow was almost as big as mine. This triggered her to tell me this and then she added that when she is as big as me she will be a grown up too. So I saw this as a fun opportunity to ask some questions to peek inside her mind. So here was our conversation.

Devon: "When I'm as big as you I'll be an adult too."
Me: "Oh yeah. What will you do then?"
Devon: "I'll do lots of things."
Me: "Like what?"
Devon: "I'm going to take care of kids and be a good mommy like you."
Me: "And how many kids are you going to have?"
Devon: "Eighteen."
Me: "Wow! That's a lot. How will you take care of them all?"
Devon: (thinks for a minute) "I think I'll just have two like you then."

It seems simple, but I got a real kick out of it. Especially because when she answered "Eighteen" is was in the most nonchalant way possible. Like everyone has eighteen kids. I thought it was hilarious.

She's a hoot. Today I was listening to her while she was playing with her toys and they were searching for the last golden ticket, in a barn. I thought this was hilarious because a little over a week ago we finished reading "Charlotte's Web" for one of her bedtime stories. And now, if you could tell, we are reading "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." She was combining the two stories together. Very amusing.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Finally! I'm a Gardener!

For a few years now I have yearned to have my own little vegetable garden. While we were looking for a house, having a good look at the back yard was vital not just to see if there would be ample space for the kiddos to play, but also a good place for a vegetable garden. Now I am clueless about gardening, especially vegetable gardening. So anytime I meet someone who does, I cling to them like a magnet hoping to absorb their knowledge.

A neighbor around the corner from us has a HUGE backyard easily two or three times the size of ours and he has been growing vegetables for a couple of years. And luckily he was very willing to share all his experiences with me and our community one Saturday afternoon. While I was in his backyard I took viscous notes and created a sketch in my head about how to create a vegetable garden in our yard.

When I finally got the idea on paper, Chris had a few issues with some aspects, so we made some changes and compromises. Basically we decided to create three raised beds at the very back of our yard and then leave the rest open to create an area with a bench swing. For now, we are just focusing on the raised beds.

So today I went to Home Depot all by myself (yes I WAS intimidated) and got all the materials we would need to create the garden. Well, almost all of them. I got enough wood to make three raised beds, but only enough topsoil, compost and transplants for two of the beds. I was afraid of spending too much money. Well, silly me didn't do the math in my head very well, because I ended up not even using all of the $100 gift card we got. So maybe tomorrow I'll go back and get the stuff for the other bed.

When I get home, not only am I eager to brag about getting everything on my own, but I also loaded it all in the car (also known as the box, scion xb) by myself. Well, we also needed to seed the backyard, hopefully for the last time, so we can have a full lawn. If you've ever had the joyful experience of seeding a lawn then you know first you have to rake the soil to loosen it so the seeds can do their magic. It took me an hour and a half to do 80% of the back yard and then thankfully Chris took over for me. I'm such a wimp. Chris spreads the seeds out and then we get to work nailing the beds together. That was more complicated than I think it should have been. We definitely need a new drill with more power .Arrrhhh arrrrh arhhh (that was supposed to be the Tim Allen grunt from the tv show Home Improvement.)

We get the soil in the beds and I plant my little plants literally minutes before it starts to rain. It actually rained on me while I was trying to put all the trash and tools up. So now I my vegetable garden. Even if I only get two tomatoes and a cucumber I will be excited. But hopefully there will be more than that. Here are a few pics I took right after finishing. They aren't the best quality, but I was rushing because it was starting to sprinkle and I didn't want my camera getting ruined.


So here is a picture of the three beds, I know the one on the far right looks crooked, but it's just the ground isn't level. I'll fix it later. I also need to fill in the dirt around the edges of the others. But since it was about to rain on me This was all I could get done. Pretty impressive huh?

Here is the middle bed. It has six cucumber plants and two sweet pepper plants.

This is the bed on the far left. It has three bell pepper plants, a cluster of basil, two cilantro and two rows of carrots in the middle I planted from seeds. I can't wait to see if I did that right. Grow plants grow!! I want some veggies! I have to wait about 50 days for the carrots, I think I'll mark that on my calender. I need to look the others I can just pick as they look ready. I'm so excited!!!

Oh and to top things off, a couple hours after we were done and the rain was trickling away I noticed a huge rainbow over out backyard. If that isn't a sign of good luck, I don't know what is.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Gone Fishing

Last week was spring break, so we packed up the car and headed out to East Texas to visit Chris's parents. There house seems to be the place we go to the most when looking for a mini vacation. They live on Lake San Rayburn, and I do mean on the lake. There back yard consists of the lake. It's sweet. So we generally go fishing every time.

This time they took us to a different part of the lake to fish off some docs that always seem to have something bitting. So we get some worms and fish with these awesome little kid poles. We catch some brim and perch not really intending to keep anything, just having fun.

Well, Devon was getting pretty bored because she wasn't having any luck catching anything. Mainly because she wouldn't stay still enough. So Chris has a good idea to put a bobber on her line to give her a better mission of watching it bob instead of feeling for nibbles. Well, it worked. She caught a nice little sun perch, I think that's what they said it was. She was so excited when she realized she had actually caught something. She was eagerly reeling it in, seeming so proud.
But then when the fish was actually out of the water, she freaked out. She screamed and dropped the pole and wouldn't go near the fish. It was hilarious. It was a nice touch to the weekend because when we first got there she freaked out whenever a bug came near her. Even flies caused a ruckus. After a day and a half she was finally finding the courage to say "shoo fly" to most bugs without having a panic attack.

I think having to stay indoors all winter made her loose her since of adventure. We are planning to go on many more expeditions around the Austin/San Antonio area to rekindle her admiration of nature. Although that probably won't get us good stores like catching a fish and running away.

Good Times

Well, things have definitely been changing in the Cato house. Matthew has been officially walking more than crawling for about a week now. The trick was figuring out how to get back up by himself when he would fall. Now he has the hugest grin on his face as he toddles around the house. I love it. Now he is also able to explore outside more, because instead of freaking out when he falls in the grass he can just pop back up.

Devon showed me a neat trick. Apparently she can wear Matthew's jacket, which is size 9-12 months. I almost considered starting her on a all pizza diet, but then I was able to come back down the earth and remember the doctor said she was fine. But still, it's a small concern in the back of my mind. Who knew that I (former cabbage patch kid) would have to worry about having a slim kid. This must be from Chris's genes.
Well, Matthew is 13 months old now and we figure with a wet diaper he should be 20 lbs now. So we switched him over to a bigger car seat where he can finally face forward and sit up. At first he wasn't a big fan of it. He doesn't fall asleep as easily now because he isn't tilted back. And his first test drive in it was a five hour trip to East Texas. Great planning on my part, but he has adjusted and seems to enjoy it. The only thing is he looks so very tiny in the big car seat. I can only see the top of his head in my special little review mirror! But he's growing, and pretty soon that won't be an issue.

Chris and I have finally come to an agreement on how to landscape the backyard. All this after a couple of days of lobbying and compromise, and not to mention a few arguments. I can't really explain it too well, so you'll just have to check back for a garden update. We're hoping to get it all together next weekend, which is really next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, his current days off. Luckily, we got a $100 gift card for Home Depot from our credit card rewards, so that will help out indeed! Because landscaping and gardening can be pricey. Especially if you want it to look decent. Who knew?

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Four Years and Twenty Pounds Apart

Yikes, it's been a while since I've been in the blogging world. What with Matthew turning one, Devon having the flu and then the chaos of having two birthday parties in one day, it's been pretty crazy around here. Oh, and let's not forget the reordering of the house after the chaos. I feel like I just now have returned back to normal.

We'll start with Matthew. He turned one and got a rad little hotrod for his birthday. He loves it! At first he would just climb in and out, in and out for long stretches of time, but now he has gotten over the novelty of it and can be pushed in it without trying to hop out like a stunt devil. Also, I made him an awesome dinosaur cake that was delicious! It was banana cake with chocolate frosting, all made with love from scratch.

Shortly after Matthew's birthday Devon starts to get cold/allergy symptoms, but then on the day of her well check appointment she runs a 102 F fever and has to miss school for the first time all year. There goes that perfect attendance record. At the doctors, they test her for strep and the flu and she comes back positive for both. This is on Tuesday, her birthday party is supposed to be on Saturday. Uh-Oh. Luckily, she went to the doctors at the height of the illness and started to recover quickly. Then on Thursday the doctors office calls me and says that the 48 hour culture of her strep test came back negative, so apparently she didn't have strep, just the flu. So one less dose of meds for her, hooray!

Now Matthew's well check was at the same time as Devon's. Seemed like a good idea at the time to just get them both out of the way at the same time, but it also meant it was a very loooooooong appointment. I think next year they will have separate appointments. Poor little Matthew weighed in at 19 lbs 4 oz, so he still has to use the baby car seat, backwards. He's not a big fan of that. Devon weighed in at 40 lbs, which means she's only gained one pound in a year. Now I know why she seems so lanky, it's because she is. But then again she was sick and her appetite goes away when she's sick. So maybe she's really 41 or 42 now.

So, Saturday comes and so does the families. We have cake and presents for Matthew at 2:00 and then somehow time fast forwards in warp speed and it's time to dash to the children's museum for Devon's party. The museum is downtown and we are in Manor. Shouldn't have to worry about traffic because it is a Saturday right? Wrong. Highway 290 was backed up and I was hyperventilating. Then there was construction all around the museum, which wasn't there during our last trip. So Devon was 15 minutes late to her own birthday party. And for those who know me, then you know I was loosing it. I absolutely HATE being late, especially to my daughters only 5th birthday party. Luckily, I have an awesome husband who reminded me the party doesn't exist without the birthday girl. Great man I tell ya, great man. Devon had a blast at the party. Unfortunately, none of her school friends she invited came, but that just left more free passes to the museum for us.