Surgery updates

Mike will be having his surgery on Thursday Sept. 17, in Dallas, TX. He met with the surgeon and feels good about his options there. What they decided to do is look to see if a repair can be done, and if not, he will have a stentless porcine (aka pig) valve put in. No blood thinners for life with that one, and it looks like these stentless ones are lasting longer than the other tissue valves. He should be in the hospital for a week and we are planning on 4 weeks in DFW. I look forward to it being done and having this all behind us.

Let's talk about the awesome people we have waiting for us in Texas for a moment. I am just completely taken aback by the help we've been offered while we're there. I can't say I'm surprised, there's a reason I tell Mike 3-5 days a week "I wish we still lived in Texas". Our friends are nothing but wonderful.

So Saturday we spend a LONG time planning the trip. I mean, long time. There was arguing and there were tears. No matter how it worked out, the answer was always the same- everything is expensive. We had come to the conclusion that driving was going to be the best option, as it was cheaper since we wouldn't need a car rental for a month. 25 hours in a car with Matthew really scares me, but you do what you have to do. Then, like the God sent angel that I know she is, my friend Susan calls me. "I have a car for you to use for the whole month you're here." What? Excuse me? Was she in my living room listening to our conversation? Her dad has an extra car he's not using and he is so, so generously letting us use it while we are there. Wow. I can't even tell you how much this meant to us. And yes, more tears. (I won't go into details, but she also happens to be taking 2 days off of work to babysit, keeping Matthew one night over night, and letting me and the kid sleep at her place for a few days). THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

Now that's a friend.

But I don't want to belittle the others--we have 3 other homes that we're staying at while we're there. One of them, we get to be on our own as our friends are taking a family vacation to disney world and letting us use their house for 6 days. I have another babysitter for Matthew. I have friends letting us borrow baby stuff so we have less to travel with. One friend says she'll put together some toys for Matthew to play with, and then even switch them out every week or so if we want, so Matthew doesn't get too bored with them. It seems the list goes on and on. Many thanks to everyone! I'm not sure you'll ever know the amount of gratitude we feel!

And I REALLY wish we still got to live in Texas! :-) But since that's not possible, I sure do love what we have waiting there for us when we visit.

Recipe Post!

If this post helps you, great. I hope it does. I have to be honest and say part of the reason I'm typing it out here is for ME to remember a couple of yummy recipes. I love scrolling back through the blog and seeing something that shakes my memory a bit. I do have mommy-brain you know.

Let me also say, I now have a picky toddler. He's definitely not as picky as they come, but he's now deciding what tastes good and what doesn't. To be specific, tastes good= pasta, cheese, bread, cheese, fruit, goldfish, cheese, ground beef, bread. Oh there's a bunch of other stuff here and there too, but at the route of this is vegetables are no longer on the "I will eat willingly and enjoy" list. I happen to think this is not ok. Not because I have any kind of loving relationship with them myself, but because they are healthy and packed with nutrients he could use. On this topic, I also feel I need more veggie love in my world, so I'm in trying to up our intake at the same time.

Next point, I still have about 20 pregnancy pounds, and 30 pre-pregnancy pounds, to lose. I am a point-counter (aka weight watcher for those who need clarification). I am in need of healthy, tasty, point-friendly foods.

All that said--I LOVE to cook. I found a joy in cooking years ago. It often falls to the wayside of every day life, and it often gets reignited and I have this urge to just COOK. I am not an inventor of recipes, for the most part, I prefer following one laid out already and tweaking it as I see fit. Nothing gives me more pleasure than taking a yummy, perhaps not so healthy, recipe and turning it into a yummy, healthy, guilt-less pleasure. Thus, I will link and give credit where credit is due, when I am able. The following recipes were all cooked and eaten in my home within the last week, so I can honestly say what I think of them.

Sigh...I can see this is going to be a long post. I hate it when I'm too wordy. I also refuse to go back and find things to delete, so deal.

Toddler Recipe 1: Broccoli cheese spread
Don't be alarmed. Your eyes do not deceive. Last week in a fury of "must get vegetables in my son", I created this odd concoction simply by dumping things from my fridge into the food processor. When it's a dumping recipe, sorry to tell you, I have no measurements. I can tell you, though, that this was gobbled up quick by mr. I will spit out and throw all vegetables you send my way matthew. (the trick is, my boy will eat just about anything if it's folded up in a tortilla--I pretty much slap anything I can in those suckers these days).

• steamed chopped broccoli, about 1 cup (mine was cold in the fridge)
• shredded cheddar cheese, about 1-2 oz.
• cottage cheese, about 1/2 (?) cup
• salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
• mix in food processor
• slap into a whole wheat tortilla and fold in half
• microwave long enough to melt cheeses
• let cool a bit and cut into bite size pieces

I gotta say, I didn't think it would work, but it did. (mommy had some too and can vouch that it was pretty darn good).

Toddler Recipe #2: Spinach and cheese quesadilla

Simple.

• Chop some spinach. Cook in pan with cooking spray, until wilted down.
• Spread some cream cheese on tortilla.
• Put some chopped spinach on top of that.
• Add some other kind of cheese, if you desire. I added cheddar.
• Fold and microwave (or warm on stove top in skillet).
• Cut into bite size pieces.
• Watch toddler eat it right up. (ok, he didn't exactly "eat it right up", but after some coaxing, he tried it, and then he shoveled it in his mouth)

Recipe #3: Sneaky vegetable tomato sauce

(preface: I was shredding/grating some vegetables for a different recipe and decided to just shred up a bunch to use for other purposes. While it sounds time consuming, it really wasn't. Well, ok, I have a very fast and lovely electric shredder, so it was really easy for me. You just go buy your vegetables, do all the shredding at once, and bag them up into big Ziploc bags and keep in your fridge. Done. Easy vegetables for recipes within reach.)

So, the sauce. I just sort of made this up for Matthew and I to have a bunch of vegetables with our pasta the other night. It was delicious.

• put a handful each of your shredded veggies into a microwave safe dish with lid. I used zucchini, yellow squash, and carrots. Microwave 3-4 minutes, with a tablespoon or 2 of water, stirring it up part way through.
• Meanwhile, start your water boiling/pasta cooking
• In large skillet, put either cooking spray or a little olive oil. Add 1/2 chopped onion and 1 chopped garlic clove.
• Cook for a few minutes, until the onion starts to soften, but don't let the garlic burn.
• Add a few handfuls of spinach and cook until it's nice and wilted.
• Add jar pasta sauce (or homemade if you'd rather. I do not.)
• Add shredded cooked veggies to sauce.
• Voila! Veggie sauce.

Matthew's went something like this: pasta, a little browned lean ground beef, veggie sauce. Once again, he gobbled. As did I.

Recipe #4: Turkey Veggie Burgers

I got this recipe online, and I am so sorry to say, I don't remember where! I feel bad, because I'd love to give the right person credit, but I printed it and then forgot where it came from. But, I made them tonight and they were really good and Matthew loved them, so here it is.

• In a large mixing bowl, mix together with hands:

1 cup grated/shred carrots

1 cup grated/shred zucchini

1 cup grated/shred yellow squash

1/2 yellow onion chopped fine

1 lb lean ground turkey (mine was a 20 oz package)

1 egg

1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1 tsp. Seasoned salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 T. Worcestershire sauce

• Divide into patties and grill as you would hamburgers
• Serve on whole wheat bun with whatever toppings you prefer ( I used a little bit olive oil mayo and ketchup)

Guess what? I have more, but I need a break. You need a break. We all need a break. Next time I have some oatmeal recipes and a zucchini bread recipe. YUM!

Let the good times roll

First, some pictures. Then an update.

Matthew had so much fun with my parents, I know it is killing him that his playmates, cuddlers, walk-takers, spoilers are gone. But, he'll just be that much more excited the next time he sees them.

Here they are before we left to bring them back to the airport.

Ummm...somebody got used to napping while being cuddled on the glider. I'm sure both parties involved enjoyed that.

In his new PJ's. For some reason, despite these still being only size 12 months, he looks like a big boy to me in them. Sigh...baby no more. Crazy toddler days are here.

More playing in his favorite cabinet.

Bathtime.


What to tell you, what to tell you?



Great news- I signed Matthew up for another round of swim class since he enjoyed it so much the last two weeks. We went on Monday (it's a M-W-F class) and my little fish did not disappoint. He laughs, he squeals, he slips and falls completely underwater and comes up laughing. I told the teacher I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing that he is so comfortable in water. I have to watch him like a hawk in there.

More good news- well, that's what I'm calling it. Mike's surgery is scheduled for Sept. 18 in Dallas Texas. After a lot of researching, mailing disks to doctors to get consults, he has decided on a doctor and the ball is rolling. He is flying out there next week for his official surgical consultation. This particular doctor has several options available to him, so hopefully they can come to a decision about what will be the *best* choice for him. Now we are in a whirlwind of planning. We will most likely have to stay there for a month or so. How to get there? Where to stay? Who will watch Matthew while he's in the hospital so I can be with him? What to do with the dog while we're gone? Decisions, decisions. Good thing is, we used to live there, so we have lots of friends to draw upon for help when we get there (ahem...right friends???) We're leaning towards driving, which I have a very hard time wrapping my brain around considering it will mean a toddler in a car for 20-something hours. That just spells disaster to me, but my mr. cup 1/2 full husband, insists it's fine. Oh, and on the way back there will also be a post-op man back there too. Perhaps they can whine back and forth to each other and Mommy can wear ear plugs?

We're just plugging right along with the summer. I can't believe it's already mid-August! We had some beautiful weather last week, but it's getting hot again. We got some park time in this morning, but after an hour or so we were melting a bit.

I suppose that's all for now. It's enough, isn't it?

Good times

Always a good time when Babci and Pepere come to visit (that's my mom and dad by the way). They flew in on Friday and we've been pretty busy since then. Saturday we all spent the day up in Leavenworth, WA. It was a fairly long day with having to sit in a car quite a bit, but we had fun. It's like a little German town, with lots to explore. We had a great lunch of German food and then did some shopping in all the cute little shops.

Mom and Dad on the streets in Leavenworth

Hanging out with Pepere

Mom and her German Chocolate cake

What the heck is this Mommy?

Sunday we enjoyed some time at the park. The weather took a beautiful turn for the better for a few days- sunny and warm, not hot. Matthew enjoyed swinging and playing with Babci and Pepere.

Worn out from playing hard

Monday was a trip to Portland, where Matthew had his appointment with the pediatric urologist. Not too surprisingly, he will be needing surgery to pull his testicle down to where it's supposed to be. The doctor feels pretty strongly that it if was going to come down, it would have by 6 months. Matthew's is still quite high, but can at least be felt on exam (apparently sometimes they're so high they need to ultrasound to find out if it's even there at all). The surgery is a quick procedure done in the same-day surgical center. They wanted us to schedule it Monday, but I explained Mike's upcoming surgery and how we don't know when or where that is happening, and they were fine with us waiting a few months. So, we'll get Mike all fixed up, and then we'll get Matthew all fixed up, and then this mama will need a drink.

After the doctors visit, we stopped at the outlets and bought some very cute clothes for Matthew for the fall/winter. Hopefully he'll grow enough to fit into them- we decided to buy mostly 18 months. "Little nugget", as I like to call him, only weighed in at 20 lbs., 4 oz. on Monday.

Here is Matthew playing in the waiting area

Random picture post!

Storytime with daddy before bed

This boy loves his lovey. And his thumb. They tend to go hand in hand.
Cute boy (yes, that's a calculator in his hand. It's the latest craze.)

Favorite kitchen spot

Daddy recovering from his catherization test. It was a long morning for everyone, but Matthew behaved so well on shortened sleep. Daddy slept through the whole test and remembers nothing.

My boys

He thought it was fun to wear daddy's hat

This boy loves to chill in just diapers. It's so funny how much happier he is without clothes on!

Clearly he's quite distraught over the goose egg he got. (this photo does not do it justice--believe me when I tell you it got to about golf ball size in about 5 seconds flat. Scared me is an understatment. I chose not to include the side view where you can see it protruding out...too graphic!)