Purely Distraught

At the beginning of May, I heard some not-so-happy news through the grapevine. And after a short search for the truth, my greatest fear was confirmed. For reasons I will never be able to understand, my favorite Pediatrician in the whole wide world decided he was going to move to SOUTH CAROLINA!!!!!! What the &*%$!!! I can tell you that I had to get off the phone when this news was told to me and bawled. Just bawled. Therefore, I have cried off and on about this for the past two months.

Dr. Stripling (aka Dr. Steve) is one of the sweetest, kindest men I've ever met in my life. He was there the day Slade was born, Finley was born, and Gunnar was born, and we have seen him for the last 8 1/2 years. His only son was born two months before Slade, so we've compared notes all these years. Our sons even played basketball against each other this past spring, which is where I saw Dr. Steve in Nikes for the first time ever! He always wears dress pants at work.

I've trusted him with the most precious things in my life. I just feel sick about him leaving and I know that no doctor can ever take his place. And some of you probably think I'm acting crazy about this, but I cannot tell you how patient this man was when I was a brand new, paranoid mother with a new infant that puked all the time. He made me feel confident and I had such a piece of mind knowing that he was caring for my baby. There's no way to count the questions I've asked this man and I do think he is one of the smartest, best doctors in Lubbock.

So today was Gunnar's 9 month well check and I had to say goodbye for the last time. His last day in the office is Friday. He hugged me and I had to suck it up and not cry in his presence. He predicted today that I would have a son that was 6ft. and one 6'3. So I'm going to hold him to it and see if he's right! And then my eyes got all teared up when I was walking to the elevator. And yes, I cried a bit in the car. And look at the picture-Gunnar's even crying about him leaving!

So here's to you, Dr. Steve! Thanks for all the years you gave us! You are irreplaceable! Excuse me now-I have a good ol' cry to go take care of..........

My Three Smarts

I found a deal on LivingSocial.com (sorta like Groupon), so last week I ordered this on a 16 x 20 canvas for my living room mantle. I cannot wait to see what it looks like!

Minor Mishap & A Recipe

Gunnar did not have a good morning. The following photo is pitiful. Gunnar had a run-in with a blow dryer. The blow dryer won. Don't be alarmed. He's alright. You are looking at his inner thigh.

I feel so bad. His first real injury. I was trying to get ready this morning. I have a system. I sit on my bed, putting a big pillow on my knees, then putting a flat frame on top of the photo, and then my mirror so I can see what I'm doing. I do this so I can put on my makeup & blow dry/round brush my hair. I do this because 1.)my back always hurt when I was pregnant, so I like to sit down 2.)it's boring blow drying my hair in the bathroom and 3.)Gunnar screams if he's not sitting there beside me with toys. So the whole time I was working on my hair he was grabbing the mirror, my brush, the pillow, and climbing all over me trying to get on my lap. So I turned the blow dryer off and put it down to the side of my lap and I picked him up and sat him on me and you know the rest. He scream-cried and I knew something was wrong. I instantly thought my gosh-that must have burned him! I ran to the sink and put his leg and foot under the water, but I couldn't tell where it was burned. About twenty minutes later, the beauty in the pic appeared! UUUHHHGGGG! I feel terrible. Poor baby! I put some aloe vera on it. And he was mad but considering it was a burn, he did exceptionally well. He didn't really fuss any more about it. And you know how horrible a burn feels. I was thinking he's pretty tough! He hasn't complained about it any more really (complained as in, not fussing).

So there you have it. Bad morning. First injury. Sad Momma. Poor Dude. On the bright side, he's holding his bottle sometimes! Yay!!!

On another, brighter note, I made some delicious tilapia tacos tonight! So good and low calorie. I've been trying to incorporate more fish into my diet. These, I could eat at least three times per week. I will post the recipes at the bottom-you really should try them. Slade ate the meat and asked if it was chicken.

And I made some mango pico to go on the side. It was really yummy too. I think it could go with any fish, chicken, or chips, or I could just eat it plain.

Angela came over to eat with me and we finished off the whole bowl. Zero weight watchers points, btw!

And last but not least......You guess-which plate was Slade's and which was Finley's??? Gotta love boys that eat you out of house & home! And I have two of them now! Yikes! Here are the recipes.....

Tilapia Fish Tacos

2 tilapia fillets (I used fresh from the deli bc they were on sale)

cumin

season salt

chili powder

lemon or lime juice

olive oil

1 1/2 cups cole slaw (I bought broccoli-slaw and it was great)

corn tortillas (I wet these with water, wrapped them in a paper towel, and warmed them as opposed to dipping them in grease. It worked fine)

In your skillet, pour a little olive oil and squeeze some lemon or lime juice in and let it heat up. Rub your fillets with the cumin, season salt, and chili powder-however much you want to season it. Cut the fillet into chunks and pour into the skillet. Cook till fish looks flaky-this won't take long. Fill your tacos! I bet you love them!!!

Sauce for top of tacos

1/2 cup light sour cream

1/2 cup fat free or low fat Greek yogurt

1 to 3 tbls of chipolte sauce from a can of adobo chilies

cumin-a few shakes

Mix all this together. Put as much chipotle sauce according to how hot you want it. This is so good!!! This made about 4-5 tacos, depending on how much fish you put in each. Sorry I don't have exact measurements, but I made these up, taking bits and pieces from different recipes that I liked.

Mango Pico

1 tomato

1 mango

1/8 of a purple onion

1/4 of a seeded jalapeno

2 tbls cilantro

lime juice

Dice it all up and squeeze in some lime. This made a cereal bowl full of pico. I think it's better eaten immediately-it seems to get soggy if you store it. Enjoy!

Back Problems!

We had a rough week last week. Slade somehow hurt his back or irritated an old injury and was basically bed ridden. We went to the chiropractor once and the doctor three times. He spent a lot of his week on a heating pad. He was up five nights out of the week crying with his back. They gave him some Naproxen (aka Aleve) but they will not give children much else to help with pain. To make a long story short, it's finally better so we are going to just really monitor his activities (tricks on the trampoline, hanging backwards over the couch, diving into the pool, getting thrown of his scooter, etc.) He hasn't gone to any of his football practices and missed his games on Saturday. Poor Dude, but things are looking up. I think he might start back to football practice on Thursday and we will see how that goes.

Birthday Lunch

The party continued for Finley this week. She actually turned five on Wednesday and we took her to where else, On the Border, for lunch. Brandi picked her up from VBS and met us there. I brought some cupcakes and we had a nice little lunch with the bday girl. Pics are from my iphone so they aren't great.

Her apron that we gave her for her bday. She always wants to help in the kitchen.

Random pic of Finley pointing to a puddle-it rained for about ten minutes at Kyle's shop last week and we just sat outside and smelled the rain. Then we drove home and it was bone dry.

Birthday Girl eating tortillas and cheese.

P.S. Finley really really had fun at Vacation Bible School this week. She loved to sing all the songs they learned!

Birthday Part #2

Pre-Party photo opt with the fam!

Hudson, Shana, & G

Fruit Kabobs!

I dipped marshmallows in white chocolate and crystal sprinkles and stuck lollipop sticks in them. I just found this cake plate at Kirklands-you can change the ribbon out. I love that!

This is one of my favorite birthday cakes ever! It was perfect. I painted the F and put it on top. I was so good, too!

Ang and baby G!

I made this tree and was really proud of it. I spent 99 cents on the paper stuffing stuff and bought a can of spray paint for the branches. Everything else I recycled or already had in my art stash, so it bascially cost me under 2 bucks to make!

I have saved Scrabble letters from an old game. I looked cute on the flower pot I thought.

On the branches, I hot glued horses, stars, and horseshoes that I printed out from my friend Beth's Cricut, old rhinestones, pink rhinestones from last year's party, Scrabble tiles that I stuck "5" stickers on, and tied different colored ribbons to the branches.

I found 87 cent bandanas at Hobby Lobby. And these frames were $5. The pretzels I dipped in chocolate and Finley sprinkled them with the little ball spinkles.

This was an old garage sale cowboy hat that I sprayed with the paint from the tree and then I glued a ribbon around the brim.

And I made three banners from scrapbook paper and tied them together with ribbon.

They said Happy, Birthday, and 5Finley5

And then I got a rope ribbon and painted some mini clothes pins. I dug out old and new photos of Finley and hung them in two places in the house.

We all loved looking at her baby pics-Gunnar looks a whole lot like her in baby pics!

Brandi & Camille

Happy Birthday, Fin!

Happy 5th Birthday, my Finney Girl!!!

Cowgirl Birthday Part 1

We celebrated Finley's 5th Birthday yesterday in the backyard. My cowgirl is really turning five, even though I think I just brought her home from the hospital about a month ago. We were going to do an ice cream party, but since she wants to either be a singer or a cowgirl, she made a change on her party request a few weeks ago. Cowgirl it was!

We had different games. Here are the stick horse races. This was funny because the kids didn't really know how to "race" each other. They kept waiting for each other so they could run together. Evidently kids don't do races at school anymore!

We played "Pin the star on Jesse".

We had an art table with western/cowgirl coloring sheets.

Some kids played in Finley's teepee.

Finley loves to color-she is quite the artist!

We also did "panning for gold".

Kennedi manned this station handed out the gold coins. The kids traded their "gold nuggets" for gold coins.

Aunt B manned the goodie bag decorating station. The kids decorated their bags with western stamps and stickers.

This chick was too cute with her shades! Sweet Hana!

We even had babies come to help celebrate-Baby Camille even snuck in a few zzzz's!

After all the games, they sat down for a picnic of hot dogs, chips, and fruit kabobs!

My sweet cowgirl. All the kids got a handkerchief when they arrived. Finley wore hers till it was dark! I guess it made her feel really cowgirlish. I ordered her cute cowgirl dress off of etsy-it had brown fringe on the bottom-so cute!

We also had a horse pinata. Or "binada" as Campbell called it the whole weekend.

Finley using the pink bat on the pinata. She got really mad and cried when Kyle pulled the horse up while she was trying to hit it. She has no patience for that kind of horseplay.

Smart Fam. And just for the record, I looked like a moonface in all the pics because I didn't get to fix my hair because I ran out of time and was sweating so bad. I resorted to a ponytail and I hated the pics of me all day. Bahumbug.

And the candles begin blown out!

And gifts, gifts, and more gifts. We are going to wait and give her our gifts on Wednesday, which is her actual birthday. More pics tomorrow!