Tuesday

Ben's driver interview is this coming Tuesday. We'll see how that goes...Every week seems to bring a new adventure for him. It could be an interesting year.

We're gonna be famous....

Ok...maybe not really famous but....

The sleep center's new marketing brochures came out.

So now all the marketer for all three labs will be distributing

these bad boys throughout the mid-state....

check us out....

I felt like a big goof ball in the above picture. The photographer was asking me questions about a study on the screen to try to get the picture to be more natural...still feels goofy.

Below are pictures of the new pride and joy at MTMC. They took the opportunity to talk about our work with pediatrics in the photo of little miss Alli! I should get paid royalties! Oh well.
Anyway, been promising to put those up and they just came in so there ya go. We're famous...kind of.

OOOhhhh DIY projects I want --- I need!

Ok...sitting here at work listening to the drolling sounds of snores and I decided to browse through my craft blogs that I follow. I decide to check out one blog that is discussing a major DIY blunder that she had and at the bottom of her entry I see a link on her blog that said if you like this entry then you may be interested in this.... The THIS is what I AM interested in. Check out how she organized her pantry. Oh my goodness the ruler idea is so so so cute! I hate my pantry every time I look in it. I would love to snazzy it up. She went a step further in snazzying it up when she did THIS. Love LOVE lOvE!

Experimenting with whole wheat flour

I really enjoy baking and trying new things. I have found that I don't do it as often as I would like. I see a lot of other people trying new things and then this spurs me on to start baking some more. I follow a few coupon blogs very religiously and the lady that hosts one of them does a lot of homemade baking. This is the same lady I posted about earlier when I made the freezer breakfast burritos. Anyway, she uses a lot of whole wheat flour. This is perfect for me because it gives me a way to experiment with using our wheat. I absolutely LOVE the attachment for my kitchen aid mixer that grinds grain. It keeps me from having to buy a grinder. I ground up some whole wheat flour the other day and tried these whole wheat chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.They were heavy on the butter but I felt the oats, whole wheat and protein from the peanut butter made up for it. :) Every one of us liked it. If I can sneak in whole wheat and oats by giving Alli a cookie then by golly I'm giving that girl a cookie. hah.

Tonight I had some nearly over ripe bananas and decided to make a whole wheat banana bread recipe. She adds chocolate chips (she's addicted to chocolate) but I left that out. I'm anxious to see how it tastes compared to my banana bread made with white flour. The recipe was completely different with ingredients I've never put in banana bread before so we'll see how it turns out!

Next I plan on trying out a whole wheat pancake (another one can be found here) recipe which is also great for making up a large batch and freezing for a quick breakfast for my little one!

**UPDATE** Oh my goodness, I just pulled these bad boys out of the oven and I am PLEASANTLY surprised. The new recipe had a sweetness to it unlike my other banana bread recipe and all the whole wheat did was add a little grit to the texture! Ben and I both really like it! A++ for the whole wheat!

Jumpers Playhouse

Ben and I have been trying to figure out what to do for Alli's birthday. We wanted to do something fun but July is SOOO hot! I refuse to do outside parties but I was almost tempted to just do sprinklers and water slides for the kids to play in while we hang out inside...but we had one other idea too. We've wanted to check out the Jumper's Playhouse for a while. We went today to see if Alli would like it. I think the screaming fit she through when we said it was time to go home was a good indication that she had had a good time.
Took pictures on Ben's iphone because I didn't feel like lugging my camera to the playhouse.





So I think we will probably do a party at the Jumper's Playhouse for many reasons 1. Alli loved it first and foremost! 2. We can have the place to ourselves for a private 2 hour party so it will just be the kids we invite in there. 3. It is indoors in the A/C!!

Lastly, just a picture of Alli being helpful! :) Enjoy the A/C everyone...this summer is beginning to look like its going to be bleak!

Options..

Well now that we have decided to stick it out here for a while, its time to start planning out what we want to do with Alli's room. Alli's crib is a convertible crib but I don't see the point in converting it when we know we want to have another child. Ben wants Alli to stay in the room she's currently in so she doesn't have to get used to another room. But we won't be able to move all 3 pieces of her bedroom furniture into the other room when we have a baby. The other room as funky angles and because of where the doors and windows are...the furniture just doesn't fit. So I'm thinking about selling the armoire. We don't use it as much as I thought we would anyway. The crib and changer would fit no problem and then I will probably also have room to bring my rocking recliner in as well...

So this means we would need to store or sell the full size bed we currently have in our spare room but what do we get for Alli's furniture. Our rooms just aren't large enough to put a twin bed out from the wall, plus dressers and toys, and still have room for kids to play. So I'm thinking we should get a day bed with trundle so that her bed is up against the wall, leaving the middle of the room open for play. We would have the trundle that we could pull out in case we needed to turn the bed into a full size bed for company. So here are some options I like:

This one doesn't have a trundle but it would make for a great use of space if we didn't want to go the trundle route.
So we'll see. As of right now Alli is still happily in her crib. She doesn't try to climb out so we aren't forced to convert her bed yet.

Splash Pad

I had not taken Alli to the local splash pad until today. Supposedly today was the opening day. You can't beat that it is less than 10 minutes from my house and free! Normally this place is packed and that is enough of a deterrent for me. I don't like over crowded places and neither does Alli. But today our church's mother's group got together at the splash pad and I thought it would be fun to go with a bunch of Alli's friends from church.

We didn't plan or consider how many cicadas would be around the water. Many of the kids were screaming and wanted nothing to do with it. Alli didn't mind all the much. In fact, she touched one after I pointed it out to her and touched it myself.It took her a good 45 minutes to an hour to get comfortable with the water spraying everywhere. She loves water but wants it splashed on her terms. After most of the play group had left, Alli decided it was time to start having fun. So we stayed an extra hour.

She had a great time and I think we may try to go back tomorrow when Ben is home to enjoy it with us. This month is a perfect time to go since the cicadas will keep it from getting over crowded and Alli didn't mind them!