Well, it’s finally happening. We have some form of winter weather here in Birmingham! Right now, I can hear the tinker-tinker-tinker of "ice pellets" bouncing off the trees, patio, leaves, etc… It even looks like there is the slimmest of possibilities that when we wake up in the morning there may be a tiny dusting of snow!

Yeah!  Josiah just moved himself forward!  He did a little leap-frog move, a couple times in a row.  He’s trying to be a linebacker, though, balancing on his hands and feet with his butt up in the air.  He’ll be all over the place any day now… Watch out, world!  (baby book milestone: almost 8 months)

I’ve got Sour Cream Spicy Chicken in the slow cooker. It’s a Weight-Watchers recipe, and I thought it would be a nice tasty meal for Brian’s parents to join us for, since his dad is trying to eat "heart healthy". I’ll post how it is later tonight, but here’s the recipe:

Spicy Sour Cream Chicken

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 pkg low sodium taco seasoning
• 2 T cornstarch
• 1/4c low-fat sour cream

Spray slow cooker with non-stick spray. Place chicken breasts in, top with taco seasoning and salsa. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Shred chicken with a fork and knife, and remove from the slow cooker to a dish. In a separate dish, mix cornstarch with a little bit of water, stirring well. Add sour cream, stirring well, Mix with chicken.

We’re having ours on tortillas with avocado, cheese and tomatoes as toppings. Depending on how "juicy" it is, I might add more than 1/4c of sour cream. Sounds tasty, though! I’m going to make bananna pudding for dessert, since that’s Tom’s favorite, and I can do it low-fat, too.

Josiah and I are off to World Market for some coffee stuff, and then we’ll pick up Analise. Tuesdays are a nice orderly day… Analise will go down for a nap just as soon as we get home, and so will Josiah. I’ll have some good time this afternoon to get things done. I love Mother’s Day Out programs! I’m glad Analise does too!

Sorry this is a bit washed out… having a hard time getting our camera to catch good light.  He’s still cute!

We managed to make it through our last antibiotic shot (of 3) on Friday.  Analise was a trooper.  I was so proud of her.  There was, of course, crying when we headed down the hall toward the room, and tears and wailing when I had to hold her down for the shot.  But she only cried as I carried her back to the waiting room and for part of the 20 minutes we had to wait before the nurse would let us go.  I was so impressed.  She got over it pretty quickly.  Though as long as the band-aid was on her thigh, she’d see it when she went to the bathroom.  And it would cause her to get a bit weepy, so she wanted me to put  my hand over it so she couldn’t see it.  So cute and funny.  She was sad and happy when the band-aid fell off yesterday.  (sad voice) "My band-aid’s gone."  "Yep, it fell off."  "It’s at Grandma’s."  "Yep, you’re all done with the shots."  (happy voice) "My leg doesn’t hurt anymore!"

A few random pictures my my roly-poly smiley boy!

But today she was grumpy.  Probably normal 2-year old grumpies, but they wore me out.  A she snuggled up to me a couple times, I asked her if she felt ok, and she shook her head.  When I asked what hurt, she said her ears and her nose.  Grr.  So after a call to the nurse, and when she woke-up looking sad and a little sick, I took her back to get her ears checked, just to make sure she didn’t still have a raging infection.  Thankfully, they’re just still very fluid-filled and only mildly infected, which is to be expected, the doctor said.  They should still clear up this week, though the fluid will take a month or more to clear out.  Since she still has a viral cold/cough/runny nose, though, the doctor wasn’t very optimistic that we would manage to get by without yet ANOTHER infection.  As long as she’s sick, it’s going to be hard to keep that fluid from ending up infected.  So I’m praying that she gets healthy ASAP, because if she’s sick again in the next month, we’re headed straight to the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor, and she’ll be getting tubes in her ears.  Not what I want, but ultimately, I want her over these crummy infections, because I hate seeing her feel bad.  We do have to go back to our regular pediatrician (who I really like) in 3 weeks or so, to see how her ears are clearing up overall.  Hopefully, we can be "all clear" by then. 

He loves to look at his reflection in the high chair!

Josiah’s got the crummy cold, too.  I feel bad for him, and I really hope he doesn’t end up with an infection.  His 3rd tooth has broken through (2nd on top), and he’s still thinking about going forwards.  Analise has enjoyed piling toys on top of him today.  He likes it until he gets something bulky and hard dropped on him.  Then he finally figures out it’s not so fun.  Analise, though, thinks that Josiah wants ALL his toys… at the same time.  Funny. 

Ok, a couple last pictures… Josiah’s new almost completely done room.  We’ve still got some cute little alphabet stickers to put up along the top of the walls.  But he’s pretty happy with his new room!  So am I! 

Lastly, a picture of my Tastefully Simple table… after the party, that’s why the samples are almost gone:)

We just got back from a great (but very short) trip to Chattanooga, TN. This blog is a little different because I am starting it out with a photo album describing our trip in pictures. Click on each picture to see a larger image. If nothing happens, try holding down the CTRL key when you click the image. This will bypass your popup blocker. Also, once you have opened the first image, subsequent images may appear in a browser window behind the current window so you will have to use ALT+TAB to switch between windows. Good luck!

Well, let’s start from the top. I (Brian) left our house at 5:30 in the morning to bike from Birmingham to Fort Payne, 115 miles to the northeast. It was a chilly 23 degrees when I left. By 7AM, the temperature had dropped to 19 degrees on my bike computer and stayed there for about 10 miles. By the time I made it to Springville, I was getting pretty thirsty because my water bottles had both frozen (first picture) and I could only squeeze a tiny little bit of frozen gatorade out. I continued on and the temperature gradually warmed above freezing by the time I made it to the top of the first major climb, Blount Mountain (second picture). After climbing Blount Mountain, I had a steep descent before immediately climbing back up Chandler Mountain (third picture). My parents were driving with Kristine and planning to meet me in Fort Payne, but because of a headwind and the cold I only made it 93 miles before they caught up with me shortly after the last climb, Campbell Gap (fourth picture). So that was my biking adventure.

(Kristine’s narration) We made it to Chattanooga at about 3 pm and went straight to the Tennessee Aquarium, where we met Kristine’s friend, Melanie who completed her Discipleship Training School with Kristine in 1999. Melanie is from Chattanooga, but is now a full time missionary for Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Cambodia. She recently married a Cambodian named Tim, who we met for the first time at the Tennesse Aquarium. We had fun walking through the aquarium. Melanie and Tim are expecting their first child in August, so they really enjoyed seeing the Aquarium with Analise and Josiah. Aquarium highlights: A great turtle exhibit; some HUGE crabs – bigger than Analise, and with an arm-span probably wider than mine; A beautiful butterflly garden where Analise caught a butterfly on her finger, petting the sting rays and little sharks in a touch pond. Fun! We sure love the aquarium!

Melanie’s family had us over to their house for a fantastic dinner, and we hung out for the evening looking at beautiful Cambodian wedding pictures and talking. It was so much fun. Analise hadn’t napped, so she fell asleep the instant we got in the car to go back to the hotel. Josiah, on the other hand, took a little nap during dinner, and woke up revitalized for the rest of the evening. He wanted the evening to last longer than the rest of us, and he was smiling and gurgling even as we were all trying to go to sleep.

The only glitch in our lovely weekend getaway was that night. Besides the fact that we don’t characteristically get much sleep in hotel rooms with our 2 kiddos. After Josiah had been woken up the first time and joined me in bed, moving Brian to the sleeper sofa with Analise, she woke us up sick, all over Brian and the bed at about 3:30 in the morning. Poor girl.

Brian was a trooper getting things cleaned up while I took care of Analise, but Josiah took the opportunity to wake up completely and decide he wanted to crawl around on the bed and gurgle at everyone. We got Analise settled in bed with Josiah and I, but after dozing off for a little while as Josiah didn’t sleep, she woke up 2 more times to throw up. Thankfully, I kept Josiah out of the way, and we kept things pretty well contained so we still had the bed for sleeping (after almost everything had been stripped from the sofa bed, where Brian was now sleeping). I eventually traded places with Brian and got Josiah back to sleep, and we managed to find 3 hours of sleep in the early morning hours. Until Analise woke us up sick again. That was the last of it, though, and she did ok with apple juice, gatorade, dry cereal and toast yesterday. Oh, and 3 episodes of the Backyardigans and 3 Pooh video stories. She told me last night, “Maybe I’ll have fish sticks for dinner.” When they were ready, she decided she preferred applesauce… probably a wiser choice:) I think we’re over it, though, as she’s feeling fine this morning.

In spite of the sickness, it was still a fun, fun weekend getaway, especially seeing good friends.

We made it through shot #2.  It went as good as could be expected.  She was good going to the doctor, though she really looked sad and a bit distressed.  Even in the waiting room she was fine, and enjoyed a new book I’d brought.  But when we went back to see the nurse, she figured it out when we walked in the room and started crying.  Rough.  Poor girl, I was almost crying.  I felt so bad for her.  I hope this knocks the ear infections out for good for a long while, because if we have to go back to the doctor in the next few months, it’ll be a challenge.  She didn’t want to walk to the waiting room, and we had to hang around for 20 minutes so they could make sure she wouldn’t have a reaction.  She just sat on my lap crying off and on, munching on some chocolate.  Poor girl.  She did get to go to Grandma’s after we left, though, and she’s hanging out there the rest of the afternoon while I try to get us ready to go to Tennessee tomorrow. 

Only one shot left… hope it isn’t too terrible.    

Sure enough, poor Analise has another double ear infection.  Or the same ear infection not going away.  In either case, it’s frustrating.  We had a choice of how to deal with it… 10 days of antibiotics (which we’ve struggled with, missing a few does, fighting to take each and every time), 1 shot and 10 days of antibiotics, or 1 shot 3 days in a row with no oral antibiotics, and the best chance to get it cleared up for good.  Well, I chose the most painful option, thinking at first it would be easier than fighting to take medicine for 10 days.  But since she got the shot, she’s cried and cried and cried saying her leg hurts, and I feel so terrible for her.  Getting her back to the doctor tomorrow is going to be pure torture for both of us.  And Friday morning before we leave for Tennessee.  Arg.  

Right now, though, she’s cheered up and playing with Grandma after lunch of ice cream.  Hopefully she’ll feel better after a nap.  Maybe we all will!

Last night was NOT as good as Monday night.  Josiah’s stuffed up with a cold, and he was up a couple times to nurse.  He’s very cute when he’s slightly awake in the middle of the night, snuggling next to us, gurgling and saying his little "babababa", though he keeps his eyes closed, so I think he’s still mostly asleep.  I took him back to the swing for a good chunk of the night but he still woke up again hungry at about 6.  It was a struggle to get up this morning, but we’ve got a pretty leisurely day. 

Analise and I are off to the doctor to check her ears again.  She’s got yet another cold.  This is the 3rd one in 6 weeks… the last 2 ended up as ear infections.  The doctor explained last time we were there that after an ear infection, though the antibiotics have cleared the bacteria out of the fluid in the ear, the fluid doesn’t drain for 4-6 weeks.  So if you get sick again before the fluid is gone, you’re nearly guaranteed an infection.  Analise just finished her 2nd round of antibiotics last Thursday… and she had a runny nose again by Friday.  AG.  I hope this isn’t another infection.  We’re going to Chattanooga with Brian’s parents on Friday to visit friends of mine and go to the Tennessee Aquarium and spend the night.  I don’t want my little girl to be sick any more!  We’ll keep you posted. 

We’ve got home church here tonight.  I’m off to the doctor, though. Gotta run…  

Last night before the wondeful sleep!

It’s only 7:45 in the morning here, but I had to come blog the wonderful, joyful news.  Josiah slept from about 8pm last night until 6:45am.  That’s nearly 11 hours.  WOOHOO!  It felt so good… I didn’t get to bed until after 11, but I slept so hard, and when I woke up at 5:30 because Analise was not feeling well, and Brian was talking to her, I couldn’t believe it was nearly morning and I hadn’t heard a peep from him.  I had to check on him, and I found him sleeping contentedly on his belly.  I thought for sure he’d wake up then, but he slept for another hour and 15 minutes, and so did we.  Lovely, just lovely.  I’m so happy.  Sure starts my day off in a good way!

I’ve got a Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) gathering this morning after Analise goes to school, and then I’ve got a lunch meeting.  It’s a busy day!

Besides Brian’s new Toonebucks home-based coffee shop, I’m in business, too!  Last night was my first Tastefully Simple party as a consultant.  I signed up earlier this month to start selling their products and having taste-testing parties, and this was my first "business" moment.  It was a bit overwhelming to get everything prepared in time, get the house organized, and get Analise, Brian and Josiah taken care of, but it went really well.  I really enjoy their products, and after hosting 1 party in the fall, I had so many people ask me when I was going to host another one, I figured I might as well start selling myself so maybe I could make a little extra money.  I don’t think of myself as being the sales-type, but I sure enjoy cooking and making cooking easier for others.  The parties are fun… all kinds of samples of soups, breads, sauces, dips and desserts.  You can’t lose with good food and friends!
Anyway, I only had 5 people there, but 3 of them wanted to book another party in the next couple months, so that’s a good start.  I’ll be able to get a website after I place a minimum order, and then I know quite a few people that will use my website to re-order products directly.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!
If you see anything on their website that looks tasty, drop me an email, and I can order it for you.  It will be shipped directly to you!