Summertime in Spring

This weekend was pretty much a whirlwind of fun and activity for us!  With temperatures in the upper 80's and low 90's it could have been miserable, but it was great!

Saturday -
We started the day at Maryland Day, which is annual open house that the University of Maryland puts on.  It was hot and crowded, but a heck of a lot of fun!  Abby had a blast playing with the bubbles when we first got there.  There were plastic ducks in the main fountain on campus, and all three girls had fun retrieving them and throwing them back into the water.

(No pictures from Maryland Day - I left my camera and phone at the house on accident.  It was really weird for me to not be connected!)

After grabbing lunch and a nap, we went up to celebrate Luke's second birthday!  Lots of family and tons of presents, but mostly it was fun to watch the children together.  Evan and Luke are constantly in motion, which is awesome to watch.  I think that Abby did not believe Luke was up to the challenge of opening his gifts on his own, so she helped a little:



We left their house way too late, but Abby did not notice too much.

Sunday:
We realized on Saturday night that our regular church service on Sunday was not going to be "normal" but rather was the Easter Choral Cantata.  I love music, don't get me wrong, but I don't love Latin.  We decided to head up to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for the morning.  Last summer we got a membership for the family as a good, indoor play place for Anny and Abby for hot summer days.  Abby has never really been a huge fan, so we wanted to go this spring to help decide if we wanted to renew our membership.  The answer is "no" but we had a fun time.

We have not been to the dolphin show with Abby, mostly because we paid for the membership and I'm too cheap to tack on extra money while I'm there!  This time they gave us tickets to the show for free, so we were not going to pass that up.  Anny went in and found seats while Abby and I walked up and down stairs a few times and looked at the dolphin tank from below.  Very cool.  When we got in and sat down it took Abby a minute to figure out what was about to happen, but when she figured it out it was hard to wipe the grin off of her face!



We had lunch at the Inner Harbor - nice big salads really hit the spot for Anny and I.  Abby went to sleep in the car, but not quite enough.  I hate when that happens.

After having folks over to watch the Capitals game, we went out and played in the yard and the street for a while.  Yes, I am a bad parent and let my daughter walk in the street without holding my hand, but she seems to be pretty clear about when that is and is not allowed.  We walk down the street with her in her wagon, or on her new bike, and sometimes we let her push her baby stroller:



Overall we had an incredible weekend and can only hope the whole summer is this fun!

Wyoming for Easter!

FINALLY! We have been home for two weeks now and I'm just now finding time to sit down and blog about our awesome trip to Wyoming. I will not bore with every little detail that I'm remembering, but will share a few things.  A little background would be that Anny's parents live in Casper, and her brother's family drove out from Saint Louis.

Flights
Abby was incredible on all four of our flights to and from Casper!  We pulled out the stops, but it was worth it.  We had and used:
1 sucker
Many songs
Madagascar on my iPod
Several books

We made friends with everyone around us just to be safe, but Abby only even whined once that I can remember.  A funny note here is that on our flight into Casper, on a little jet, Abby was blissfully happy until the plane touched the ground.  It was then, and only then, that she fell asleep in my arms!  Too cute.

Weather!

The weather was absolutely incredible.  There was snow on the ground, of course, but we were outside every day in short sleeves playing on the swing set!  We had a few well intentioned snowball fights, but nobody got too hurt.  (Sorry again, Anny.  I love you and did not mean to cream you in the face with a ball made of snow.  Funny?  Yes.  Intentional?  Not exactly!)  Really the only time that I even wore a coat on our trip was the morning we went up ON the mountain.


Schedules
Our biggest challenge turned out to be schedules.  Abby is an Eastern Time girl, her cousins are Central Time girls and we were visiting the Mountain Time Zone.  Abby napped before her cousins and was awake way too early every day.  The grandparents were good sports about all of it and extremely accommodating to our craziness! 

FUN! 
The bottom line is that we had a blast and wish we could be together more often with that part of the family but indeed the miles are vast between us, for now at least.

Finally
Of course I took lots and lots of pictures and they are available HERE and HERE.

Once again I made a trip to Wyoming and saw FEET of snow on the ground but none fall from the sky.  As my Mother-In-Law said, that's okay!  It's that I was there to see the snow that matters!

Kidney Check Up!

On Tuesday, about 15 hours after I landed at BWI from our trip to Casper, Wyoming, which I really want/need to blog about but have yet to find the time to.  Maybe this weekend.

After being weighed, I had to immediately blame my Mother-In-Law's cooking and baking habit for the three added pounds since my last visit in the fall.  The doctor was very understanding, and did not question it.  I may have left out that I did more exercise over those few days than I am used to doing over the course of three weeks, but that's for me to know, not him.

While I'm on the weight - I think there needs to be a change in the way that ALL doctors offices that I've ever been to do their practice.  Stop weighing me and THEN taking my blood pressure reading.  I'm fatter than I thought, of course my blood is racing. 

He said that my protein is a little high, but I explained the problems I had with getting my meds and he agreed that was probably the cause.  Nothing to be too concerned about.  My creatinine was at 1.3 somethings, and just about right for me.

Great news is that my cholesterol level is 134 and I won't have to fill a prescription for meds to keep that in check! It was a bit high the last time I saw him, but now we seem to be okay. Phew.

That's it - I go back in six months unless something happens, and here's hoping nothing happens to necessitate a visit!

Ready for Spring

Here I sit, just about a week away from another trip to the nephrologist.  It forces me to remember that last spring when I went to see him I had such high expectations about my overall health, not just that of my kidneys.  I was going to play organized ice hockey last year.  Didn't happen.  I was going to exercise more regularly.  Didn't happen and hasn't happened.  I was going to eat better.  That one I have done, but "better" is certainly defined by comparison to my own eating habits in the past, not what "healthy" would look like.

So next week I will sit on the exam table and be embarrassed, hoping that my lab work has been processed and to his office so that it's not a wasted trip like the last two times.

To add insult to injury on this visit - if the lab actually does their job right and he has my results when I see him - is that my mail order pharmacy has totally dropped the ball on my most recent order.  I have been waiting since March 17th for my order.  Unfortunately my drug coverage basically makes it so that I HAVE to use or get reprimanded and threatened with not covering my medicine.  Ugh.

Well, they say that my meds were delivered on March 21st by the Postal Service.  Well, since my meds come in boxes, and there are 15 boxes per order, that makes my delivery box to be about the size of a 12 inch cube.  Yeah, that's not accidentally out of sight.  I have no clue where those meds are, and they were supposed to be rush delivering a reshipment, but that has not arrived and we leave early tomorrow.  Oh well.

At least I still have a supply of the good drugs, but I am a bit concerned that I should probably have one of the other ones.  When I talked with them last week they said they would put a rush on the order, but I checked just now and it's still processing.  Since I leave in the morning for Wyoming, it will be at least another week until I get my drugs back.

Who says our health care system is broken?  I can not imagine how bad it would be if I didn't have insurance.

Leavin, on a Jet Plane

In our house hold we are gearing up for a trip!  We're headed west to Casper, Wyoming, for five days over Easter. We leave early Wednesday and come back mid-day Monday.  (Telling you this in case you want to take us to the airport - hello?  is this mic on?)

I am super excited about being in Casper.  It's beautiful country out there - plus I get to test my powers of insanity again.  I have been to Casper three or four times now.  I have never seen snow fall in Wyoming, but yet I have never seen snowless-grounds.  I'm not sure if it's me, or if that's just the way of Wyoming, but it's humorous to me.

Paul and Sarahlynn and the girls are coming to meet us there, so the fun will be doubled quadrupled!  It will be really fun to see how the girls have grown, and more fun to see how the three girls get along.  Christmas was fun and funny at the same time, and I can only hope that it's as much fun when we are together again later this week!

I have already gotten Abby's stuff together, and mine is just about ready to go into the bag.  I've learned over the years that I pack in advance, and Anny packs at the last minute.  What I am continuing to learn is that we are both right, and I just need to let her work at her own pace and leave her alone.  I'm still working to learn that, and so far have not harped on her at all about this trip.  It's called growth, I say!

But, and I am a believer that there is always a but... If I am being honest I would tell you that I am dreading the trip TO and FROM Casper.  Abby has done wonderfully on our trips by air in the past, but those have been trips aimed at success for her.  Two-three hours, direct flights. This trip is two planes - four hour and one hour, with a layover in Denver.

We have gotten together some toys and a couple of small books.  I have even picked up a bag of lollipops and yogurt covered fruits (her new favorite).  We're thinking about loading "Madagascar" onto the iPod and hoping she will become as engrossed in the small version as she has been on the regular TV for the last couple of nights.

So - what are your travel tips with toddlers?  What is the ONE thing you would not go without?  What it the biggest mistake you have made in relation to toddler travel?

Lucky Number Seven

Today is my Anniversary!  Seven wonderful years ago we were married.  We have moved three times, bought our first home, and have a beautiful daughter to enjoy every day.  Anny is my best friend and I can not imagine life without her. 

Happy Anniversary Anny!  I love you!

Operation Dinner Out

Finally finding time to blog this week. I'm working on several posts in my head, but have not had any extra time to sit and write. I'm going to start with a story about our first dinner out in a long, long time without Abby!

Last Friday night the Maryland State Teachers Association honored the 302 teachers from across the state that achieved Certification through the National Board for Teaching Standards.  Yes, there are lots of acrynoms that could be used, and they will be from here on out!  The dinner was at the Marriott Waterfront in Annapolis, Maryland.  I don't think I've ever been to that part of town, which is humorous just a bit since I've lived here for like 20 years and it's the state capital!

The dinner out process started about two months ago when Anny received an invitation to the dinner.  It was explicitly clear that I was not invited, and honestly that rubbed us both wrong.  I wrote, on Anny's behalf, and email to the contact and said that she respectfully declined the invitation if her significant other was not able to attend.  They said that they were dealing with space issues and had to wait to see how many teachers would be there before they could release seats to guests.  Obviously, they let me go or there would be no more story at this point!


Let me tell you, it's a ton of work for a teacher to achieve this certification and about 50% fail on their first attemps.  Anny went through the process twice, once she was pregnant and the second time we had an infant/early-toddler on our hands.  Every time that she need to work on her projects, I got the extra house and child rearing stuff.  I earned a spot at that table, as did every other significant other in the room.

My aunt Pam came over to watch Abby.  This was a big thing for us.  We have done two lunches out, and one evening when Anny and I each had meetings at different locations.  The evening babysitting was not pleasant for anyone involved, but it was more than a year ago so we were a bit more confident.  We left an extremely thorough "Abby's Normal Evening" list for Pam to use.  I'll probably post that later today or tomorrow on Abby's blog.

We got to the hotel almost exactly on time and got our nametags and drink tickets.  The thing is that we don't go out, obviously, so we had absolutely no idea what the tickets were for and ended up paying cash for Anny's first glass of wine.  No big deal, but felt pretty dumb about it later when someone pointed it out.  We were the first people from Howard County and found the table with the county name on it, along with Wicomico County's two teachers.  We found out, after setting ourselves up, that there was another full table of HoCo teachers.  It was not a big deal since Anny knew only one of them very well, and he ended up at our table with his wife.

They kicked off with speeches that included the MSTA president as well as the Lt Governor of Maryland.  It hit me at that point that these are people with their hands on the stimulus money that we hear about on the TV every day.  It's just so intangible in my head, but these people know it to be real, honest-to-goodness money.  It was the first time that we had heard that Maryland is the Number 1 state as far as education goes in the country according to Education Week.  That's pretty cool.  (See how your state stacks up HERE.)

Dinner was nice, especially considering it was buffet style!  They had four tables of meat, two (very rare) roast beef and two of turkey.  They had two tables of pasta with veggies, and bread.  It was surprising how quickly the lines seemed to move, but I realized that these are teachers, and they spend part of their day herding children through cafeteria lines.  They are pro's, so to speak!

After dinner they had each county line up to receive a certificate from the MSTA and a very cool plaque for their desk.  One county had only one recipient, and two counties had well over 25.  Anny's county had 13 total, and I think that about 9 of them were there.  This was a very, very long process and so we got to talking with our table mates and had a great time chatting.

We got home much earlier than we thought, which was kind of nice.  Pam offered to watch Abby again any time, of course, and that she was an angel.  She only asked about us twice, which is no more than when only one of us is home and the other is out.

Anny's certification lasts for ten years, so I don't think I can pull off a nice, fancy dinner again for a while.  Maybe she can work with next years participants and get an invite that way...  I should get to work on that right now!

Play Kitchen Build

It's finally here - the blog post about Abby's new play kitchen!

I was inspired by a blog post I found HERE that did something similar, but I kept parts of their idea and added some of my own.  As an added bonus, my brothers' scroll saw is in storage, so I got to buy myself a new one!

I started with the Ikea RAST end table.  At $15 it was probably cheaper than if I went out and got nicely finished wood and cut it myself, plus it was a great, square starting point.  (Cost so far: $15)

Then I cut a hole out to put in a metal bowl from our kitchen.  We have too many bowls as it is, so giving this one to the project made sense to us.  I added a piece across the middle to support any weight Abby might apply, as well as to divide the box in half - one is the "oven" and the other side is currently non-purposed.  This is also the point that I had to buy a new scroll saw, which was both fun and awesome at the same time!  (Cost so far: $15 for project, $29.99 for saw)



The tricky part, and the part that required the most thinking, was the faucet.  I scoured Ebay and Craigslist for a real kitchen or bathroom faucet, new or used, for several days before giving up.  I looked at prices in stores, but the cheapest was about $30.  I could not justify that in my head.  I decided to make something out of PVC pipe, and I think it turned out well.  It's two pieces, a p-trap and a part that fits into the p-trap.  I had to cut the bottom piece to get it into the tight space, but that was easy.  The two pieces cost me a total of $3.  (Cost so far: $18)



I had a random piece of nice, finished wood laying around the house that is only about 1/4 of an inch off of fitting perfectly with the table, so I used it.  I'm not much on perfection - it gives me nothing to complain about later if there are no flaws!  We think the wood was a shelf to an old entertainment center.  Cost: free.  (Cost so far: $18)



Since I have about a dozen mouse pads at my office that do not get used (they come with new computers, and we've gotten ten new ones in the last four years) I decided to put them to use in my project.  I cut circles out of the mouse pads to make burners.  They are not attached for two reasons - we might paint it so they would be in the way, and I don't know how we would attach them properly.  Oh well.
I added stove top knobs that are actually casters from tables at my office that were on their way to the trash.  They were screwed into a 1x2 across the top at the same time that I put a kickplate (1x4) on the bottom to keep toys from sliding under the kitchen.  (Cost so far: $18)



I added an oven door and Abby immediately knew what the whole project was!  You will notice that the knobs here are pink - it's because the casters from the previous picture were too large with the door on the oven - it would not open!  I ran out to Target and picked up some dresser knobs for $5.  Ended up at Ikea the next day and could have gotten better looking knobs for less money, but what's done is done.  (Cost so far: $23)



And that's the whole thing!  If we had bought a wooden play kitchen in a store we would have spent at least $125, and the cost for one can go up to numbers that I'm too embarassed to type!  I spent $23 and about four total hours on this project by using mostly scrap wood from around the house.  You can also check with your local hardware store (or Ikea!) for scrap wood to save on the cost.

Here's Abby enjoying her newest toy!

Wordless Wednesday

Finally!
Originally uploaded by armonroe
Tomorrow I will be posting the steps to build this play kitchen - stay tuned!

You can see more Wordless Wednesday entries here: www.wordlesswednesday.com.

A Practice Weekend

My sister Michelle came to visit this weekend.  She is in her third year of college and is looking for work and an internship up here for the summer, and will be living with us for a few months!  We're really looking forward to having company in our massive house, to be completely honest!  It is going to give me an excuse to rearrange the clutter that is our basement, and means I will probably get some good air hockey time in!

While on one hand we are excited, there is going to be one big issue to work through - dieting.

Anny's medically suggested diet is low sugar, low carb and high protein.
My medically required diet is low potassium, medium protein.  (Sugar is fine, thankyouverymuch!)
Michelle's medically required diet is, newly, gluten-free.  And she eats only four vegetables, but we've agreed to work on that.  :o)

Jack Sprat only had his wife to deal with!

Anny's first intentionally-gluten-free try was rice flour pancakes on Sunday.  I have heard they were exactly like regular pancakes, but didn't have any because I had eaten already when she announced her venture.  Oh well, I'll get some next time.

Michelle did get one interview request already, but it was for late on Sunday and she had to be on the road at lunch time in order to get everything settled for going back to classes Monday. 

Two questions:
1 - What's the biggest meal challenge you've faced?
2 - Know of any good, gluten-free, low sugar and low potassium recipes...?!