La madre de todas las noticias

Loosely translated - the mother of all updates!

First and foremost, Fabi had surgery yesterday. They put in a G tube, or PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrointestinal) tube. Did I get that right, medical people?! It's a long story of how it all came to this, but basically, she is making such small progress that this is where we are at. It's a little nerve-wracking since she had heart surgery at 4 months and the whole anesthesia thing made me nervous, but overall it is so nice to get rid of that nG tube in her face! Now hopefully we can focus on eating even more and there will be no tears over having to replace the tape or the tube a bunch. This poor girl has been making so much progress otherwise and we can't wait to see what happens next!

In other news...I keep meaning to post things for Make It Mondays and I forget!! There have been 2 food things we made lately that I wanted to share. We hauled home a load of apples from up north and are enjoying home made applesauce alot! I love experimenting with throwing it in the crock pot. The first time I used a recipe that called for juice and sugar. I have since tinkered w/it and haven't ruined a batch yet! The next thing I wanted to share was how I roasted some veggies the other night. This is not something no-cook-Mel has ever done before people!

You see this lovely squash? I wanted to use it in a recipe and found one online. They recommended cutting it along the ribs! It was all new for me so I just went for it. They said peeling it would be difficult, but once I cut the ribs, it wasn't.

After cubing the squash, I tossed it in a ziploc w/some peppers, onions and oil. TASTY! We cooked up some bowtie noodles and I stirred the veggies. I can't even begin to tell you how good it was! There was supposed to be gouda cheese melted in it, but we didn't have any. It didn't matter, but maybe we'll try that next time? The other fun thing we made were squid-dogs! We had some special kids w/us for the weekend and I wanted to do something different. I saw this online somewhere and even Dave laughed! He thought it was pretty cool =) It was funny to see the kids' reactions!

The theme of the past month has been GET OUTSIDE! The weather is unbelievable! Just this past weekend, November 22nd, we were out w/no jackets on. We've been to our back yard, Parnell Tower and Kohler Andrae State Park. I took so many photos that at one point Dave said we'd have photographic evidence of each step! Yeah, I slugged him for that one! Anyway, I managed to choose a few of my favorites and put them into a rather medium-length slideshow. ENJOY!

I have many more things to write about, but I think I'll save them for some other posts! I have started and saved this one so many times...I just want to hit publish and come back...

Surprise! It's gone!

7) I had gathered a bag of clothes for a friend who runs a casual clothing drive for people in need. Then at church she told me she could no longer do it b/c she had finally gotten not one, but two jobs! That bag of clothes was so lonely by the back door...then our church hosted a Compassion Clinic and I kicked myself for not bringing the clothes there. I said it out loud and another friend told me someone in her bible study might be able to use them! So they are gone and it was reported back to me that most things fit! Cool =) One of the main points I was hoping to 'hit' was that people could actually use this stuff and I didn't want it to just be tossed out or sold. So far so good, just not fast...I did finish my online classwork (that was always an easy excuse) so now I should be able to tackle things a little more vigorously!

Two things that bug me - you can change though!

When I took Dave to work yesterday, it really bothered me to see everyone's trash. So many people had paper bags in their trash, or plastic bottles...does no one recycle?? Also, I try to tell Dave and others all the time that our city only takes numbers 1 and 2! If you put in a 5 or something they will just throw the WHOLE bag away. This morning I was reading another blog and the woman talked about what types of things recycled materials turn into. It was pretty interesting, but there were a few things in there that bolstered what I've been saying...only 1% of all plastic bottles are recycled!! Anyway - please please recycle! I'm not this big save the Earth girl or anything, but honestly, I don't think it's that hard. I would also encourage you to find out what #s your community accepts so that you are not tossing random things in your bin. Thank you! Sorry for the soap box, I just felt that was something I needed to say. Most people I know recycle, but like I said, if you don't, you should =)!

Faster than a tortoise who has already had a hip replacement...

We're slowly making progress on getting things out of here!

5) Took a load to Goodwill. Random stuff. Nothing really useful to friends we know!

6) I know you won't believe this but we still had quite the tape collection...Duct tape? No. Masking tape? No. Scotch tape? No. Medical tape? Yeah, we've got a lot of that lately, but nope. VHS tapes? That too, but again, NO....

(insert sound of crickets here b/c I know you can't think of any other kind of tape!)

CASSETTE TAPES people! Now, can you guess which one of us had more? I'll give you a clue - his name starts w/a D and ends w/AVE!!! Yeah. He had LOTS. Had. I convinced him (yeah, he tried to pull the sentimental card on me) to get them out of the house. It was such a big collection that I decided it counts as a separate entry from the rest of the Goodwill stuff.

So that's it. No more cassette tapes in our house. How will we survive?? Stay tuned for next week when we get really crazy and start offering up the walkmans or the cameras that use film or something!

Movin' it on Monday

Got some more stuff out of the house today!

3) Kids' plastic bowl and plate to my friend from high school! She saw my pic on FB and asked if I could send it. Hope he likes it =)

4) A large batch of bowls, plates, etc for a friend from church who runs an in home daycare. So nice to clear off a whole entire shelf of plastic stuff we are not using!

My poor blog is turning brown!

If this blog were a plant, it would look a lot like my houseplants right now! But here I am w/an update...so what do you want to know?? Let's start w/me. I have been trucking along, doing the housework, having fun w/Fabi while Mo is at school, being my usually adventurous self! I've tried some new recipes, a few other things that cut down on waste, and started a journey to get 50 things out of the house. Just this week I was offered the chance to sub while a Spanish teacher goes on maternity leave - I'm still working on the child care details for that one, not sure if it will happen. I am helping hand out hygiene supplies at our church's Compassion Clinic next weekend and I already got the seed catalog for next year! Dave is enjoying school, it's been busy but he has a job! He is playing piano for our church's Traditions Service (translation: 8am - mostly attended by older people and they play more traditional music) and he loves it! Most weeks, Moses goes along and sits in the front row by himself. From what I hear he is extremely well behaved and has learned so many of the songs =) What else? He's getting used to combing girl hair, as I am, and figuring out how to layer dresses w/turtlenecks, tights and bloomers! Moses LOVES Creative Play school! His teacher sings almost everything! She teaches music in the afternoons and it's like a match that only God could make. I was able to take some pics after the Halloween party and he was so proud to tell me who all his friends were and what their costume was! He is starting to show signs that he can read things like "I see the bat, You see the mat, We see the cat", etc...which absolutely knocks my socks off! He draws big circles w/faces and stick legs/arms to make family portraits. I have been amazed by the way he has adopted the big brother role. He is so very helpful and compassionate towards Fabi...he has really grown and seems to be handling having foster kids much better now. Fabi is getting stronger and making small gains in eating. At the last appointment, it was noted that she is more than likely going to be getting a G tube in her stomach since the progress has been slow. I'm confident that will be a good thing - we can forget about taping the Ng tube every day, fussing over it when it comes out, and just having the thing as a physical reminder literally in her face of the troubles she's been having. One thing I said to Dave lately was that I feel like she's a lot of fun to hang out w/, and for me, it's weird since she's a girl! But she's been talking a lot lately, singing and spinning in the kitchen while I cook, playing dollies, asking for ponytails and hair clips, etc...it is a whole new world compared to my boy! Anyway - I hope to get some pics up soon, so we have that to look forward to! There have been a lot of changes around here and some days I feel like we're hanging on for the ride, but mostly, I'm just enjoying my favorite season of the year!

G to the O to the N to the E!

This was actually gone last week already, but I am terrible about posting right now!

2) Fan bike! Yeah, we haven't used this since the treadmill quit last year. It has sat in the horrible ucky basement for that long! I posted a pic on facebook and one of my former students (I am lucky to call him friend now!) came and picked it up. There are a few other things that were claimed off the facebook picture listing and I hope to get them out of the house TOMORROW NIGHT! You hear that? So expect #3, #4, #5 and hopefully #6 to be posted SOON!