I'm anemic

I found out a few weeks ago that I'm anemic.  Not all that bad of a diagnosis.  It is the second time I've had this diagnosis, and I eat right and usually take a daily vitamin, so I'm thinking that i have some type of vitamin deficiency that is causing it and that it will probably be something I'll have to deal with for most of my life.  I'm going to have to stop giving blood (probably), which is a bummer b/c i really take pride in doing that, I'm a red cross VIP.  I also have to take iron supplements 2 x's a day, and they kind of make me feel icky.  I'm hoping my stomach/system will get used to them after a week or two and I'll go back to normal.

i think that it might have gone away for a while when i was larger (had gained weight) b/c i had more blood and now that i'm getting back down to my normal weight, it has returned, not quite sure....

But, i have been feeling VERY tired lately.  I've been being hard on myself b/c i thought that I had just gotten a little lazy - but the doctor said that my iron was very low and that could have been causing the tiredness.  i'm hoping after a few weeks i'll be back to my old self and get my butt up off the couch!!!

And about the Hoover Floormate

It was a bust.  i was so excited, but the vacuum/steam cleaner for all wood/tile surfaces just didn't work at all.  Not for me anyway.  The scrubbers didn't even touch the floor.  I was very disappointed, but i took it back to wal-mart VERY fast, I'm not spending that much money on something that doesn't work.

Catching Up Again

So, here we are in April - and this is what, my 8th post of the year.  Sad, so very sad!  April is going to be my make it or break it month - either now or never.  Time to get back into this blogging habit or just give up.

Here is a picture of my Peyton at Easter.  He is getting so big! 

So, highlights from the last few months...

- We have started looking for a new church.  I'm feeling a major 'stirring' to get back involved in church again and I've been reading lots of Christian books, downloading sermons, listening to Christian music - and just trying to make more of an effort daily to seek the Lord in everything.  E is also having some major spiritual battles right now and I'm helping him (or trying to) fight that and point him in the right directions.  He is actually a very strong Christian so I'm really just here to listen and provide support when he needs it.  We love our current church, some stuff has just been happening and since we had kind of gotten out of the habit of going we aren't sure why many of the members have left.  Our church is also non-denominational - which is fine, but we were both raised Baptist, so we are just starting to look into some of the medium sized churches in the area b/c our church is very small and we want to go somewhere that will have more programs for Peyton for when he starts getting a little older. 

- Peyton is finally starting to say a few words - he can say ba (for ball), bye, yeah, and this (everything that isn't round is this).  He has made a lot of progress over the last few weeks and i think he is going to start saying more words soon.  I can tell he now trying to sound out sounds more - like ca for car - just in the last week or so, which is a major improvement since his 15 month checkup.

- My SIL had to have her thyroid checked out because she had a nodule on it, and when they were doing the procedure on Thursday they found cancer, so they had to remove the whole thyroid.  it was shocking and very scary.  She has been in the hospital since trying to get her calcium regulated, and she should go home soon, but she will have to be on thyroid medication for the rest of her life.  She is only 28, and if she didn't happen to have a lymph node that needed to be checked they would have never known about the thyroid problem. 

- I'm down 40 lbs now, and feeling great about it!  If I could just keep myself motivated i could probably lose this last 10 lbs faster!  I no longer have to shop in the plus size section and i can fit in a lot of my old clothes.  i do still need to do a lot of toning though.

- The next scrapbook crop is this Saturday - and it isn't looking like a ton of ladies are going to be coming, but I'm still planning on having tons of fun.

Long Weekend Farewell

The long weekend is almost over.  Sniff sniff.  I took Friday off to get some stuff done around here while Peyton was still in daycare, and that went mostly as planned.  I got most of what I need to get done, done. 

I've been reading this --> Into the Mind's of Babes - a book about Children and TV - and so far it is a very good book.  I'm going to write more about it when I finish the book, but so far it has definitely made me stop feeling guiltily about his delay in talking/saying words.  The book says to focus mainly on the content, context of what your child is watching and what is best for your child.  And I do spend quality time with Peyton playing daily - so the fact that he watches Mickey Mouse a few times a day isn't bad.  And he could be learning from it!  But so far one of the biggest things I'm learning from the book is about background TV noise.  Whenever I am playing with him and trying to teach him words/sounds, having the TV on (or the radio) that noise can be a major interference in his learning and picking up all of what I'm saying/teaching him - and the TV can even interfere when he is playing on his own.  So now the TV is OFF unless he is watching something.  Eric can watch TV in the other room.  If we are watching something as a family, then I don't mind the 'background' noise, but that is only a few times a week and it is kind of rare that we watch a show during the actual 'viewing' of the show, so I'm not stressing that too much.

So, we got our taxes back.  I ordered us all some clothes from Old Navy, and when they came in all my clothes were either too big or too small - so I'm ordering more clothes and taking the returns back to the store.  Peyton's clothes looked ADORABLE though.  I'm so glad that they were running the 40% off sale, or they would have been too much, but I got him a few things for this summer.  I also ordered me a few things off amazon - a tripod for my camera, a camera lens cleaning kit, a new Christian CD, and a few books (actually 2 of the books are from half.com).  I also ordered Peyton this - Here come the 1,2,3's from They Might Be Giants.  I was so shocked when I saw it in the latest issue of Parent's Magazine.  I just thought it was cute and that he might like it (one of the songs comes on Playhouse Disney and I liked it) I comes with the DVD and CD - so I figured, why not.  I wanted to get him something for the DVD player for our trip in April - and this looked cool.  I almost ordered a Dan Zane's Trains CD, but I decided to hold off b/c my cart was getting too full.  I think we all know how that goes.

And my last big purchase (besides paying off one of our credit cards) with our tax returns is this bad boy.  The Hoover Floormate Spinscrub 800.  Oh how I cannot wait to use thee!  I have carrots and peas stuck to my tile floor constantly.  I have to literally get down on the floor and scrub with a grout brush to get the floor clean.  Oh, I hope this thing works like it says.  I read all the reviews and I so hope it does.  And it will work on my wood floors too.  It vacuums, wet-clean (with scrubbers) and squeegee-dries - and I have been using a cheapo $30 vacuum on my hardwoods since we moved in 2 years ago (the whole living areas of my house are either wood or tile) and this is going to be a major upgrade.  Can't wait to get it in hopefully by next weekend!!! 

Blogger is blocked

Actually EVERYTHING is blocked at work now. Blogs, Flickr, Bloglines, EVERYTHING. So, I’m so very out of the loop. I don’t know how I’ll ever keep up now. It isn’t like I sat on the computer and read blogs all day, but I did take a few minutes here and there to check blogs and I did spend my lunch break browsing as well. Rats! It is so NOT fair.

Oh, and not to mention all the blogs that I would visit that were work related. Lots of people in the industry have blogs now, so now I can't ask questions on how to solve problems that I don't understand or get solutions to problems. Ugh. Forums have been blocked for a long time – so I could never get on any of the developer forums and now blogs are gone too. Kinda Funny.

I’m just waiting for the day when they block Google. Then I think I will completely lose it. Seriously!

It's Official

I'm a minivan mom, and I couldn't be happier.  We traded the Camry in on an 2006 Toyota Sienna minivan and I'm in LOVE.  We both love it.  We also got a really great interest rate (one of the main things that made me go for it) and our payments are almost exactly the same and we only added 6 months back onto our loan - and the minivan will fit the needs of our family forever - no matter how many kids we have, and it was what I really wanted so we decided to go for it.

Nothing much else is really going on around here.  Peyton still isn't talking.  He will in time.  E's work is VERY slow at the cabinet shop, as is everything that has to do with house building in this area.  He hasn't worked a full week in a long time.  he is starting to look for another job.

I did the January Layout Challenge.  I can't believe I did a layout every single day for a whole month.  I learned a lot about making digital layouts too - and i plan to take an online digital scrapbook class starting in a few weeks, so that will be fun.

I hope that the weekend is pretty, I haven't been thrifting in awhile, so I'm itching to go find some great bargains.  We are also anxiously awaiting our tax return, i filed our taxes last Wednesday, and they were accepted on Friday - so I expect to the the refund check sometime early next week.  Most of it is going to pay down debt - but we are each getting a little bit to spend on stuff that we need/want - so that will be fun.

Peyton's Checkup

His checkup with the speech therapist went ok.  He is behind, but we already knew that.  She made a plan for us to work on at home and we will be going back to see her in 3 months.  He also went and had a hearing test done, and he past most of it.  He didn't do well on the part in the sound booth where he was supposed to turn toward the sounds, but he was having a hard time focusing.  first he was only paying attention to the toys they were giving him, then because he only wanted the toys - when they took them away to try to get him to listen - he got mad and wouldn't listen.  She wants to retest that part in 6 months - but besides that, he passed 100% all of the other tests.

But his communication skills are only at a 9 month level (he is almost 16 months) so he is behind.  i'm going to be following the plan and doing all the exercises constantly.  the scary part, is that i have been doing most of these things since before he turned one.  And it is very frustrating trying to work with him on his 'instructions' when he doesn't listen very well.  I have heard lots of people say this is kind of typical for boys - so i'm trying to not worry - and i've gotten a few books from the library to give me some creative ideas for 'learning through play'.  We will see how it goes.

Here is the home plan instructions:

• Associate each action that you do with, for or to Peyton with a simple, short word. For example, each time you pick him up say “up”. Provide Peyton with lots of models of the word, then begin to pause before you respond encouraging him to say them word. If he does not speak, then you say the word and wait again, giving him an opportunity to imitate you. If he does not speak, say the word again and then do the action.
• Offer Peyton choices by holding up two things, one desirable and one undesirable. Encourage him to point to the one he wants; once he begins to point, encourage him to vocalize or imitate the word he could say to make the request. You can also put objects that Peyton desires where he can see them, but not get them. Encourage him to point to what he wants, and quickly reinforce him by giving him what he wants.
• Use objects to help Peyton communicate wants/needs or requests by associating an object with an activity or action. For example, associate shoes with going outside. Each time you go outside to play, say “get your shoes. You got your shoes, now let’s go outside.” Leave his shoes by the door. Encourage him to bring his shoes to you when he wants to go outside. Also, he could bring you a cup to request a drink or an object associated with meal time for food.
• During play time, use vowel sounds and short words to label what you are doing. As Peyton begins to associate that sound with an action or activity, he may begin to imitate you. Then, he may initiate the activity by making that sound.
• Encourage turn taking with Peyton. Any game that you play can be made into a my turn, your turn activity. When he makes a sound, you imitate his sound. Try to increase the number of “turns” he will take with you.
• Provide Peyton with opportunities to follow one and two step directions throughout daily routines. For example, ask Peyton to retrieve objects and put them places. Peyton’s participation in his routines will increase as he is given “jobs” to complete within the routine. If Peyton does not follow through, go to Peyton and physically “help” him follow the direction by leading him, putting objects in his hand, pointing, etc.

First Crop Was a Success

We had the first crop yesterday.  It went very good.  Only 7 ladies came - kind of ironic considering that I named the website 7 (used the word not the number) scrapbooks.  I got 10 layouts completed.  First time I've done traditional layouts in a while.  I finished my 2006 album!  Yeah!  I really thought I would have gotten alot more done, but it is kind of surprising how hard it is to concentrate on picking out pictures and papers and getting the layout done when you keep talking!  Ha.  Next time I plan to be more organized before it starts so that I don't have to pick the pictures out and stuff like that, I can just get it done.  We will see.

Tomorrow we are taking Peyton to see a speech therapist.  He isn't talking at all, not one word besides Mamamamamam and Dada - and he should be saying 5 words by now in addition to mama and dada (according to the doctor) so we decided to go ahead and make the appointment.  We are not worried, he might just not be ready yet - and he is so far ahead with everything else (walking, motor skills, etc) but he made no progress in the talking department over the last 3 months - so I don't want to wait until his next appointment and it be the exact same way.  She will evaluate him and we will go from there.  I wouldn't be surprised if she says come back in a few months - I guess we will find out tomorrow.

A Layout A Day in January

I'm doing the layout a day in January challenge over at Big Picture Scrapbooking called, Get a Load of This.  You can read more about it here if your interested.  This is the layout I did for the first day.  I don't know if I will be able to make it or not, but if I do I will be eligible for the drawing at the end of the month for the prize pack of goodies worth $310 bucks, wish me luck...

Winkflash FYI

Winkflash has their 6 cent 4x6 print sale going again...just in time to get all those Christmas photos printed.  Just thought I would pass the info along.  :)