Dinner and a Blood Sample

Last night we ate dinner at our Balloon Fiesta friends house. The mom is a nurse and has the ability to look at a couple drops of your blood to see how well you're eating, if there are any problems, etc. A talent that apparently hospitals and doctors frown upon because it allows the patient to know what to do in taking better care of themselves; instead of the here's your system and a long list of drugs to take to cover it scenario that doctors seem to like to give us.

So after dinner and dessert, she took my husband and myself to her "lab" (the den in their house) pricked our fingers and put two drops of blood from each on a slide. Everything was so fascinating. She showed me where a virus was dying off (my cold I had a week ago)and where my white blood cells wrangled up any other existing virus to fight the bad guys off.

Though I snack on carrot and celery sticks and have vegetables everynight with dinner, my "cookie cutter" blood cells show I am still not getting enough veggies in my diet. To aid my grouping and gapping in my white blood cells; a cup and a half a day of red raspberries, watermelon, and/or pomegrante.

For an hour she scrutinized my blood and told me the good things I am doing and what I could work on. On the way home, my husband and I compared notes - what he needed to work on compared to me. Some are similar and some are not. We discussed what to change to make ourselves more healthy and have decided to slowly start working on these changes.

I hope with these improvements that we are making in our diet, we can impart on Logan the importance of health and that you really are what you eat.

The Magic of Toothpaste

Having a toddler around, you never know what they are going to get into. My latest findings have been permanent marker all over my sewing machine and the bookcase at work. Being a little bit obsessive compulsive, I can not seem to concentrate on my sewing with black ink scribbles covering the area. The same goes for at work. However, the work situation was more of "get rid of the evidence before the manager walks in and sees what Logan had done."

In a frantic I cruised the web for what gets permanent marker out; the result - toothpaste. Not toothpaste in the form of a gel, but plain white toothpaste. With scepticism, I smeared the white goo over the black marks on my sewing machine, waited for about 10 seconds and rubbed with a sponge in circular motions. The marks were gone! I couldn't even tell that my sewing machine had been black.

And the result was the same when I brought my travel sized tube of toothpaste from home and worked on the bookshelf at work. No evidence what so ever of a little boy having fun with a permanent marker.

I think toothpaste is now a permanent object in my bag.

Naturally Born

Some people are naturally born at certain things. Whether it be sports, music, or even motherhood.

I always knew that I wanted to be a mom. In my head I would have a hallmark scenario with my family at a fall picnic or decorating the Christmas tree. However, I have discovered that no matter how much you prepare, you are never ready for the true aspects of motherhood.

Don't get me wrong, I do not consider myself a bad mother; but I am certainly no June Cleaver either. And I absolutely do not consider motherhood a bad thing. I love being a mom, some days I love it more than others.

I never expected it to be easy, but I wasn't ready for how hard motherhood is (especially in these early years - I am not ready to even think about how the teen years are going to go.)

All I know is that I love my little boy unconditionally. And in the end isn't that what matters most?

Trunk & Treat

I think I was the most excited about getting Logan all dressed up and out trick or treating for Halloween.

A couple of the local churches were having trunk and treat; cars park in the parking lot and you trick or treat out of the trunk of them. Some folks really went all out decorating their trunks with carved pumpkins, candles, witches, and ghosts. One church gave hay rides and both had a carnival which we did not attend.

Logan dressed as a bumble bee; a costume I believe to be too sweet for him. His dad and I joked that a goblin or gremlin would have been more appropriate. However, Logan was a hit of the night. Parents would joke for him not to sting them or say they don't have anything sweeter than him. One parent and his son approached us and asked to take Logan's picture, "because he looks so cute." Of course Logan had no idea about what was going on or why people kept putting things in his bag. Still, he squealed in excitement as all the other kids ran around dressed up too.

A tradition we have on Halloween is to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown", but after the excitement and cold of the night, none of us could stay awake for the whole 25 minutes.