Christmas Morning

We had a lot of fun on Christmas morning at our house. Chris always starts by reading the Christmas story from his Dad's bible. We video tape the whole morning.

Mckenzee loved all her new toys. It was so much fun to see her get excited. Her favorite thing Santa brought her was her new pink car. She loves going fast in it! Really fast!

Chris got me the comforter I wanted and it looks so good in my room. I'll have to posts pictures of it soon. He also picked out an awesome photoshop program for me and new clothes and shoes.

I got Chris a new watch. It is a Citizen Eco Drive. I don't know much about fancy watches, but this was the one he wanted. He also got some maps, and books and dvd's from me.

Macy got two new soft toys and Dingo bones.

We had so much fun opening presents together and watching Mckenzee play. We celebrated Christmas the night before with Chris' family and went to my family's house in the afternoon on Christmas Day. Those two events will get their own posts with pictures soon!

Butt Face Products

These crack me up!





Product Description

Butt/Face Towel is the simple solution to avoid embarrassment! It makes a great gift and gives a clear message to that special person!. 100 percent Cotton. Approximately 44 in. x 25 in. Words are embroidered.


Product Description

With this Butt Face Soap give a clear message to that special person! One side is brown, engraved with Butt, and the other side is White, engraved with Face, making it nearly impossible to get confused on which Side to use!

A Real Pisser

Today was a long day following a long yesterday.

Yesterday was long because Mckenzee got tubes in her ears and it was very emotionally draining for me and we had to be up very early and I stayed up late the night before washing her blanket and pillow so it would be ready. She threw up most of the morning after her surgery and felt awful.

Mckenzee and I had to go to the grocery store today because Chris and I had to take dinner to some friends that just had a baby.

We got all ready and when we got to Wal-mart I decided to put Kenzee in her PINK stroller because I didn't have much to get. She was asleep when we got there (which didn't last) so I had laid her PINK blanket in the PINK stroller behind her and then we went in. She was wearing a ruffly yellow top over a long sleeved white shirt and jeans and her hair that hangs past her shoulders was fixed half up in a side pony, and her ruffly white socks were showing. (All these details are important)

I had to go to customer service for a return and an older woman was standing there. I was messing with Kenz while I waited in line and I heard her say, sort of to herself, "aawww what a cute little fella."
"Hmmm...." I think to myself. Does she think Kenzee is a boy?
Then she says to me, "He's cute...it's a he? It's a he right?"
To which I respond, "No, she's a girl." In a voice that was a little edgy, and then added sort of under my breath, "see her pink stroller."
I was quite annoyed, offended really. I know I am her mother, but I really think my little girl is very cute and very obviously a girl, even if she wasn't surrounded by pink and had her long hair fixed.
That was a real pisser.
Then we went and got all of the things we needed and waited in a long line to check out. No 20 items or less lanes were open.
That was a real pisser.
Kenzee was getting fussy. I resorted to letting her play with my keys, which I think is gross, but always works. At least she is old enough that she doesn't put them in her mouth.
After I get all checked out, and load the things in the stroller bottom, which was completely full, and then place one bag on top of the sun visor thing and one in my hand, I remember I forgot two things I can't do without.
That was a real pisser.
I go get the two more things, carrying all my stuff, and go to the self check out and walk off without my things, then remember that I forgot them, but not before the old man behind me starts hollering at me to come back.
That was a real pisser.
It gets better though, when I got home Mckenzee was alseep and she slept for three hours giving me time to make two lasagnas, salads, bread, and peanut butter cookies. I wised up this time. Chris and I are always jealous and hungry after we take food to someone's house and are left with nothing, so this time I made the exact same thing for us at the same time.
After we visited the sweet tiny baby we had a good dinner.
Then I remembered the awful mess of a house I still have to clean.
That was a real pisser.
Ha! There you go Connie. :)

Roseola

A sucky thing.

Mckenzee has Roseola. We finally know what's wrong.

She has had fever since Thursday. 102-103. Friday night we called the nurse and she said to go to Cook's Urgent Care, but when we got there they were already closed. The emergency room was a sea of sickness...there were so many people there. I got this awful feeling when we walked in. Chris looked at me and said, "Are we going to stay here?"

"I don't know"

I signed her in and then quickly used my hand sanitizer from touching the pen. My mom teaches us to always bring our own pens and not to use public ones, but I forgot.

Chris asks, "Where are we going to sit?"

"We're not."

We go and stand by the door just looking at each other.

2 1/2 minutes later we left.

We just didn't think she was sick enough to stay there and figured she would only get sicker if she did.

Our doctor's office has weekend hours and we got to go in at 9:30 on Saturday morning. The doctor checked her out and gave us this diagnosis: "She's probably going to feel crummy for a few days and may still have fever."

Gee, thanks.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were awful. She didn't sleep much, she didn't eat much and she cried a lot. Her fever didn't go away even with medicine. A dose of Motrin did give her a little break from feeling awful for a few hours.

Sunday night in the middle of the night I had reached my limit. I was feeling so sad for my sick baby and so tired for myself. I was frustrated. I had decided to call the doctor again in the morning. I was going to tell them: Something is wrong with my child, I know this because I am her mother, I am bringing her back to you to figure it out.

The next morning she had a rash and her fever broke. I called to tell the nurse.

She told me Mckenzee had Roseola.

I looked it up on the internet. Textbook case.

So we are on day two of the rash and she still feels crummy, but is definitely improving.

She has turned into a tv junkie though, because all we have done while she has been sick is sit on the couch cuddled up watching baby einstein.

I'll have to wean her off slowly.

One good thing about sickness is I get to hold and cuddle her. She is not normally very cuddly. I don't want her to feel bad, but it feels good that I can make her feel better. I love being her mommy, even when it's hard, it's just the best thing ever.

12 Things I Love About Christmas Time

1. My family being together

2. Christmas trees

3. Lights on houses

4. Christmas smells: cinnamon, spruce, pine, and scotch tape~my absolute favorite Christmas smell. I love to hang a piece from my nose while I wrap gifts.

5. Getting Christmas cards in the mail

6. The cold weather (I wish this would actually happen)

7. Shopping for presents for my family

8. Wrapping presents for my family

9. A fire in the fireplace

10. Christmas eve pajamas and games

11. Watching 'Home Alone' with my husband~ our favorite Christmas movie

12. Listening to Chris read the Christmas Story on Christmas morning

Sara Finally Posts a Blog!!

http://saradeann.blogspot.com/

Redneck Thanksgiving

We had our Naber's Family Thanksgiving at Possum Kingdom Lake this year. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving and the weather was so nice. We ate outside by the lake.
You'll notice the naked baby by the lake wearing her Mardi Gras beads. All rednecks let their babies be naked by the lake. I wanted to fit in. She also had a bath in the cabin sink amongst clutter on either side of her.
That night we fit 15 adults 6 kids and 5 dogs in the tiny cabin living room for some good 'ole guitar playin' and country music singing. Mckenzee loved it. She danced and went from guitar to guitar watching them.
The paddle boating was also quite fun...well paddle boating always looks fun until you get in and remember how hard it is. Sara and I took it out for a little while. At first it was so kick butt I didn't think I could make it 20 yds, but then it got better and we ended up going all over the lake.
Water is not so much my thing. It kind of freaks me out. I am not a great swimmer and murky lake water makes me think of murky lake water movies where the lochness monster comes out and swallows the people in the paddle boat. I tried to push such things from my mind and had fun until a big motor boat (I don't know my boats) came by in front of us and the waves it put off sent our little paddle boat a flying. My swimming suddenly improved as Sara and I tried to make our way back over to the paddle boat to hold on to it. We took life jackets, but weren't wearing them.






Okay...that didn't really happen, but I thought it would make for a good story. The part where I started lying was when the paddle boat went flying. The motor boat did send off waves that scared us, but we remained in the boat and the boat remained upright.
He he he.

Random

...and totally fabulous

We received a package from Fed Ex today.

It was addressed to Chris Roberts.

I called him to come see it because I didn't want to tear into an unannounced package so close to Christmas.

He said he didn't know what it was.

We opened it and there was a beautiful red box inside from the R J Corman Railroad Group.

We checked the address again...Chris Roberts 5737 Cutler Lane. That's us.

We opened the beautiful box and this is what we found inside:

All our Christmas wrapping needs:

• 14 small metallic rolls of wrapping paper
• 24 stick on bows
• 5 rolls of wired fabric ribbon
• 2 rolls of curling ribbon
• 6 mini rolls of curling ribbon
• 28 metallic gift tags
• 12 large pull bows
• 4 gift bags
• red and silver tissue paper
• scotch tape

I checked the address again. Chris Roberts 5737 Cutler Lane. I guess I get to keep it. I don't know. There was a Merry Christmas Thank You for Your Business note inside signed by people we don't know. I know it isn't for us, but I don't know who it's for.

I really love it. It makes me want to wrap something.

Should I return to sender? I don't think I should pay to ship something back because they made a mistake and it is clearly addressed to my husband.

They are a big company.

I think I will keep it.

I'm keeping it.

Mastering the Staple Gun

Before

Chris was out of town on business this week and so I wanted to come up with a project to surprise him. We have been wanting to re-upholster our dining room chairs for a while now and we had already agreed on a fabric together. Had we not, I would never have attempted this because Chris is pickier than any woman I know.

Kenzee and I were walking around Hobby Lobby on Monday and I decided to go look at the fabric again and it was on sale, so that was my cue to purchase it.




I took all the chair cushions off myself using a drill and piled them in my car to go to my parents.



Kenzee and I spent the night there on Monday, because I'm a fraidy cat, and so my sister and I could do this project together after she went to bed.

She normally goes to bed at 8:00...no big deal...we read her a book and put her in bed and she goes to sleep.

Not at Grandma's. After much screaming, more playing, rocking, more milk, more snack...she went to bed some time after 11:00.

So we got started on this project a little late.

We were on the front porch getting all set up for our project and the dog came out to watch and threw up right in the middle of our work area.

Clean it up and get started.



The staple gun is a little bit loud and a lot a bit HARD! We are not getting any of the staples to go in all the way. I say we and I mean Sara...I am not brave enough to use the staple gun at this point. Anyway, Sara shoots in a staple and then I hammer it the rest of the way in, which really just flattens it.

The hammering is loud.



Moved to the back porch. It is still the same loudness, but now no one knows where it is coming from... he he.




Get started there.



Get hungry.



Ask mom for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.



She says we can have one, but we have to make it ourselves.



Sara asks her if Chris wanted one, would she make it for him?



She smiles and then flat out admits she would. (Chris is the favorite child. Most the time I am okay with this, but sometimes I get jealous. It's obvious...she babies him way more than us)

So we make our own peanut butter and jellies and get back to work.




By 2:30 am we have covered one cushion. I have used the gun a few times. Sara has mastered it and her staples go all the way in now.



We are too tired to do any more.


2ND NIGHT

We have got this down now and can complete two maybe even three cushions in the time it took us to do one the night before. We even took apart our first one and redid it making it tighter.
I have mastered the staple gun too, but I'm still afraid of it.



Our work was good and Chris loved it! This project was only $35 for 6 dining chairs.

After

Arbonne

I have started a blog about my Arbonne business http://anjoleesarbonnebusiness.blogspot.com/
It is kind of more for me and a little boring, but if you notice me slacking feel free to send me a little 'kick in the pants' note. I am working on consistency and shooting for Region in 2008!

I Love Whole Foods!

Thank you Connie for taking me there!

I love it more and more and more every time I go. It is so easy to shop organic there. They have organic everything from pears to potato chips. I love the beautiful lettuce. I love the grass fed beef. I love knowing that the cow I am eating had a good life. I love jelly without high fructose corn syrup. I love knowing our meals our safe and free of crap. I love cooking organic food. I love organic produce.

Kenzee loves tasting all the cheese samples. She has her little cheese cube and then signs more, more, more and I have to get her another one. Garlic dill cheddar...yum!

Organic Sugar is so beautiful! I will post a picture of it soon. It looks like glitter to me and makes me want to do a craft project. My sister came over the other night and was making tea and she opened the canister and stared inside and said, "What is this, is this sugar?" "Oh yes," I replied, "Isn't it beautiful?"

Right now you are probably thinking, "She's crazy." Yes, you are right, but you haven't seen my beautiful glitter sugar yet.

I love the fact that the store is small and not overwhelming. I love the aisle where you can make your own fruit & nut trail mix/granola although I have not attempted this yet. I love the beef guys who try and get the poundage just right by feeling it before they put it on the scale. They are really funny.

It sucks to drive to Arlington for groceries, but it is worth it. We have gotten better at planning and double checking our list because we don't make two trips to Arlington. We go once every two weeks and it is working out great.

Note for Levi...we have been taking our own bags. I like that too. I feel like I am doing a good thing. Here is a link from Levi to an awful story about mostly plastic forming a large conglomeration of crap in the Pacific ocean. It was an eye opener for me. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL&hw=pacific+patch&sn=001&sc=1000

Check out http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/ I hope we will get one closer to us soon. Until then we will go to Arlington for groceries and I will be happy about it.

Halloween Night

Lexi, I Owe You Some Cottonballs...

he he

During the FEROCIOUS game of Pictionary at the Halloween party I HAD to go to the bathroom. Laci offered to cover for me on her turn by stalling just a little. I ran to the bathroom and peed, only to look around and find no toilet paper.

At first, I just thought I wasn't sure where the toilet paper was located and then I saw it...

...the empty roll. Confirmation that I was really without.

No big deal. I am close with Lexi and I know she won't mind if I look around. I am also close enough to the cabinets to reach them so I start to open them one by one, but I don't find any toilet paper.

I do find some insanely large cottonballs.

A handful of those did the trick.

So Lexi if you were wondering about those cottonballs in your trashcan...it was me. I didn't know if they were flushable.

I was back to the game quite quickly, and on went the night.

Little Dancer

Kenzee loves to dance so much. We ask her if she wants to dance and her face lights up and she shakes her arms and runs to the computer. She likes hip hop music the best...even though they are mostly not nice songs. She has lots of different moves as you can see on the video. She just started the head shaking recently all on her own. Of course, I am quite proud of my dancer girl and her Daddy is too.

Football Games

Both of my cousins play football for Springtown. They are in the 8th grade. Mckenzee loves going to sporting events. She sits and actually watches the game and points at birds and airplanes. Her first sporting event was when she was 6 months old. We took her to one of my cousin's basketball games and she had the best time. She watched the whole game and followed them back and forth across the court and was ready to fall asleep by the end of it.

Anyway, I took some video clips of my cousins playing and they are pretty cool. The first one is Colten. Colten is my mom's brother's son. He plays running back and safety and special teams. This is a clip of him at running back. I was proud of him:

The next one is Jacob. Jacob is my dad's brother's son. He plays quarterback, but this was not a passing play. I believe it is called a 'quarterback keeper.' He did a great job!

And now for my sweet Mckenzee. It was chilly at the game, but she didn't seem to mind and she kept her hood on. We had a great time!

A Great Day!

I have been keeping a little boy at my house while his regular babysitter is on vacation. This is the third week. He is soooooo good, but I have felt very trapped here at home. Not that I usually go out and do stuff during the day, but I don't like having the option taken away. Sometimes I just go over to my parents house to see my mom. This requires no planning or getting ready. She has food, diapers, crib and she doesn't care what I look like.

Back to the point...yesterday he stayed with his grandmother and I was free for a whole day!

Chris called and asked me to pick him up for lunch because it was Taco Tuesday at Rosa's. I found out later that he knew some women from his work would be there and he wanted to show Mckenzee off. It was a nice lunch and it was fun to be out with him and Mckenzee acted so nice.

After we took him back to work Mckenzee and I went to Kohl's. Chris told me I could spend all of my babysitting money on clothes for myself. Part of it I am spending and part of it I am putting in the Christmas cash. Anyway, we had shopped for me this weekend and got a few things so I was already feeling good about myself in my new clothes and my daughter was behaving like a little angel and then we went shopping together some more.

I found a shirt I loved on sale regular $40 and I got it for $17.50 and I got Kenzee two cute little outfits. It was so nice just to be out.

When we got home she played for a little bit and then it was naptime.

When she woke up we went to watch my cousins play football. It was a lot of fun and it will get it's very own post.

Hairbows

Connie and I had a hairbow conversation just the other day. I am just going to throw out my opinion here because that's what blogging is all about.

Part of being a little girl is getting your hair fixed. That means learning to sit still and let your Momma put your bows in.

Little girls feel good about themselves when they get fixed up. I always tell Mckenzee how beautiful she is after I fix her hair and then we go show her Daddy and he gushes over her too. The other day I made her some pig tails and then she looked in the mirror and smiled at herself real big.

I am helping to build her self esteem.

That doesn't mean that I fix her hair everyday for just being around the house, but I do fix it when we go out.

I LOVE hairbows and I LOVE fixing up my little girl!

Okay...this blog might have been about me wanting to post that picture of my blue-eyed baby with her new hairbow in!

HALLOWEEN............

....................should ALWAYS be the last Friday in October. It could be like Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday in November. It would be so much easier on EVERYONE!

From a teacher's perspective: You do not want to spend all day with a bunch of kids that got sugared up the night before, went to bed late, and then conned their parents into a few more pieces of candy after breakfast and in their lunchbox the next day.

No thank you, not me!

When are the holiday making/changing people going to wise up to this?

Going Stir Crazy!

I believe this is a by-product of being a stay-at-home-mom. I'm just going to jump out there and say that I think probably 90% of stay at home moms suffer from this.

Sometimes I just feel like I could jump out of my skin because I have been in the house for so long for so many days in a row with my precious child who sucks out all of my energy.

I LOVE being a stay at home Mom!

...but I do go crazy from time to time.

Running errands for a couple of hours in the evening does not seems to fix this for me. I need to be out of my house all day every now and then. I need to not have to look at the unfinished home improvement projects we are working on.

"Why don't you take Kenzee to the mall and walk around?" This is what Chris always suggests to help my stir craziness.

Easier said than done.

For me to jump up and take Kenzee to the mall I would have to get myself ready...because I do not do this before she wakes up at 7 am. To get myself ready by means of taking shower and getting dressed I would need for Kenzee to be taking a nap. If I had sense enough to plan for this before her am nap it might work. When she wakes up from her morning nap she needs to eat lunch and then I would have to get her dressed and fix her hair, along with diapers, wipes, snack, drink, start the car so it won't be so hot, don't forget her special pillow, take the dog out so she won't pee on the floor while we're gone, fight her to get her in her car seat and take off. Get out her stroller out when we get there and strap her in, have to change a poop diaper in the car when we return, fight her in her car seat again, put her stroller back up. Now we can't be gone too long because I don't want her falling asleep before we get back because then she won't get a good second nap and if she's asleep in the car I might not be able to get her to her bed without waking her.

Sometimes it just doesn't seem worth it to make the effort to go somewhere by myself. I also cannot stand to go to the mall for no reason. If I am going to go to the mall then I am coming home with something. If it is not a shopping trip I do not want to go. Chris is perfectly happy going to the mall to look around. Not me!

I really need a vacation! When I say that I always think of this song:

"I need a vacation from my life,

Me and my husband we need a wife,

Somebody whose sole ambition is laundry....."

So right now I am feeling the desperation of stir-craziness, but at least it is Friday. Having Chris here helps and we always do lots of things out of the house on the weekends and this weekend we have plans to shop for ME!

Bath on Sunday

So, the Last time Mckenzee had a bath was when her Daddy gave her one before church on Sunday. I was thinking today that I should give her a bath, but part of me really just wants to wait until Sunday again and let Chris do it.

Awful...I know. She likes taking a bath and she's very good in the bath, I've just had a hang up about it the last couple of weeks and I don't want to give her one. She doesn't stink and her hair is not greasy and she's not asking to take a bath so I think she will be fine if she doesn't get one.

I'm not being lazy. I never really get much opportunity to be lazy around here. If you're a mom you know that if you are lazy for even a couple of minutes your house just might turn on you and explode. In fact, you might have taken the chance before and you know for sure that this happens. There is always something to be done...you can never finish. It's exhausting, but fulfilling at the same time.

So if Kenzee gets a bath on Sunday that will just be good enough for me.

Pumpkin Patch

Chris' Embarrassing Moment at Work

I have to blog about this. It is just too funny.

Today at work Chris received an e-mail about his new softball season. It told when the first game was, cost...things like that. It was to the whole team. At the end of the e-mail was a note for Chris that said "Can you forward me Amanda's email? (She is a girl from church who plays on his work team) Chris doesn't have her e-mail so he wrote an e-mail to me asking for it. He also wrote this in the e-mail...

"I love you! I had a great time this weekend celebrating our 5 year anniversary! Can't wait to see you tonight. Tonight is a really good episode of The Hills, can't wait!"

A few minutes later he received an e-mail from one of the guys on his softball team that said this...

"This is meant for your wife isn’t it?"

Instead of clicking the forward button before typing that e-mail to me he clicked REPLY ALL and sent it to the whole softball team.

Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee!

He had a hard rest of the day at work!

Special Day

We had so much fun on our anniversary! Chris did a very good job! Flowers arrived for me around lunchtime and they were beautiful! I LOVE getting flowers! If we had done nothing else the rest of the evening I would have been happy.

Then we went to dinner at El Rancho Grande. We have only been there a few times, but it is a special place for us. Yes, Mckenzee was with us, but it was great! We were glad she came. She was very good. The rest of the date was a surprise for me.

Chris took us to Travis Avenue Baptist Church where we got married. We went inside and walked around in the sanctuary and took pictures. It was fun to remember our wedding day there. It is such a pretty church.

Then he took us to the Botanic Gardens. We enjoyed walking the trails and taking pictures. It wasn't too hot outside and the flowers were pretty. We met a friendly squirrel.

Finally, we went to Blockbuster, where I chose the movie, and then to Sonic and home. I loved our date! It was perfect.

Happy Anniversary! 5 years!

Pretty Morning

This is an actual picture of sky seen in my backyard this morning. Kenzee and I have started spending some time outside in the mornings. We take a blanket out in the yard and she won't get off of it because she doesn't like for her feet to touch the grass. She is so calm outside. Today was so pretty and we had so much fun. I picked a flower (weed) for her and she held on to it for so long and didn't squish it.

My Little Dreamer

I wish it would feel like Fall. I get unhappy with Texas every year around this time. My favorite season is Winter (which never comes) and Fall is a close second. I like to wear long sleeved t-shirts and my worn out polo boots that I've had for like 8 years. I like it when it is chilly and you get to snuggle up on the couch in a blanket and build a fire in the fireplace.

Baby Fat Don't Go Away

Mckenzee 3 months

Mckenzee is starting to thin out some. I am not ready for that. I like her little chubby self and if she is thinning out then she is growing up and I just don't want her to. Of course I want her to experience all kinds of things like playing babies and making friends, helping me bake things and going to preschool, but not for a LONG LONG time. I want her to stay my little baby longer. It just goes so fast and it makes me sad. When the rolls behind her knees are gone I think I will cry. I'm crying already writing this.

I am thankful for every minute because I know there are Mommy's out there that are missing their babies. And Mommy's with very sick babies. I really need to get over it because I have a healthy, growing baby, but I think I will be sad just a little longer, until she wakes up from her nap.

Pertussis

This is my little platform right now. I like to have a topic to get fired up about and I have been doing some research on this subject. Chris and I plan to have more children and so that is why this is of interest to me. For those of you that live in the area you may have noticed billboards that say Protect Your Family Against Pertussis. I am going to tell you a little more about it. The following is mostly copy and pasted so I am going to site these two websites http://www.drgreene.org/ and http://www.immunizationinfo.org/.

From personal experience-Dr. Greene
I stood outside the closed door of the hospital room where an adorable 6 week old baby lay all alone in her crib. As I scrubbed my hands in the sink outside the isolation room, an electronic monitor allowed me to hear her breathing peacefully.
Suddenly the quiet was shattered by a fit of coughing. And she couldn't stop. The coughs came so closely together that she couldn't catch her breath. I grabbed a mask from above the sink and, pressing it over my face, entered her room. The coughing continued. The pulsox monitor at her bedside complained insistently that her blood-oxygen levels were dropping too. The EKG monitor sounded an alarm that her heart rate was dropping. And she continued to cough. Even before I reached her bedside I could see that her face was turning blue. She began to vomit.
Moments later the peace had returned. Her various monitors beeped tranquilly; the coughing spasm was over. This little girl with pertussis survived, but she had many more weeks of coughing spasms before she could return home to her parents.

Pertussis, or whooping cough, which once ravaged children around the world, is again on the rise.

Pertussis is highly contagious
You or your child have been exposed if you spend a total of 5 hours in the same room with someone with the disease, or if you sit next to someone with pertussis for any length of time, or if you have any contact at all with infected mucus or saliva. Between 70 and 100 percent of susceptible people will catch pertussis if they are exposed.

Pertussis is one of the most contagious human diseases, so it is a great risk to those who are unvaccinated. Pertussis will develop in 90% of unvaccinated children living with someone with pertussis, and in 50% to 80% of unvaccinated children who attend school or daycare with someone with pertussis. Approximately 50 out of every 10,000 people who develop pertussis die from the disease.

Who should receive the vaccine
Adults 19-64 years of age should receive a single dose of Tdap (ADACEL®) to replace a single dose of Td for booster immunization if their most recent tetanus toxoid-containing vaccine was 10 or more years earlier. Tdap may be given at an interval shorter than 10 years since the last tetanus toxoid-containing vaccine in order to protect against pertussis, especially for:

Women less than 65 years of age who are planning to become pregnant.

Adults less than 65 years of age who have or anticipate having close contact with an infant aged less than 12 months should receive a single dose of Tdap and trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine. Ideally the vaccines should be given at least 2 weeks before contact.

Health-care personnel who have direct patient contact should receive a single dose of Tdap.

Spaghetti Slurping

I love hearing Chris laughing on this video!

Trying to be Healthier

I want to make better food choices for our family. I am concerned about the increase in cancer and other diseases. I have to think that it is something that we are doing by what we put in and on our bodies, in addition to air quality and environmental factors. This may be an area where my obsessiveness will start taking over. Maybe it already has. My interest in healthier foods started about two years ago when I started Arbonne and began to learn how the chemicals and ingredients in our personal care products get into our bloodstream and have an affect on our total body. This made me start to research the food that we put in our bodies. Then, when I got pregnant with Mckenzee I became even more concerned because now I had a tiny life to look after. I stopped eating french fries, stopped my caffeine intake, tried to cut out nitrites as much as possible, ate whole wheat breads, and began washing my fruits and vegetables with soap. I feel like this has been something that has interested me for a long time and I still only know a little bit about it. There is so much to learn.



I remember being at this crazy woman's house when I was pregnant and she began to show me everything in her pantry and refrigerator. It was all from Whole Foods and everything was organic...she was made of money. I thought wow...how cool is she? I want to be just like her! At that point I still did not know the importance of organic.



We have been making some slow changes in our diet for awhile now, and in the last few months we have started buying some organic. We are not made of money and cannot have a pantry like the lady above right now, but we are trying to do better. The Swinneys are sharing their knowledge with us and us with them. As Connie mentioned, Levi definitely contributes to my food obsessiveness... I have been known to throw away food straight from the fridge. Chris and Connie try to let us know when we are too crazy...and sometimes we listen. It makes for a good balance and good conversation. I wanted to share a couple of my favorite products right now and list the top 12 dirtiest foods and top 12 cleanest foods so if you are like me and have to be choosy with your organic you can choose the dirtiest things to go organic in first.

Horizon Organic

What a great company! Learn more at http://www.horizonorganic.com/

We started buying this milk for Mckenzee and now buy it for us too. I wish I would've known it's importance sooner. It is made without added growth hormones, pesticides, or antibiotics. They treat their cows well and use 100% clean wind energy. They also make yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, butter, sour cream, ice cream, smoothies, and eggnog. I have to figure out where all these things are sold. Now for the price. It is over $6 for a gallon. You might be thinking "We cannot afford $6 milk!" I ask you this...."Can you afford to go out to eat?" I had to get real with myself one day because I kept saying that we were going to go organic when we were making more money, but then I thought we go out to eat regularly. We can be sure that going out to eat is not increasing our family's quality of life and buying this milk is. So we made some adjustments. Trust me, the more I learn about food, the less I want to eat out anyway.




Laura's Lean Beef

Learn more at http://www.laurasleanbeef.com/
Okay I'm not going to go into this beef. It is pretty much the same principle as the milk. It is not organic, but there are no antibiotics, growth hormones or food additives and the cows are treated well.

Okay, are these two things the very best milk and beef that are out there? No. The best beef would be a cow you raised yourself that you knew for sure what it ate and how it was processed, etc. Same with the milk. These are the things that I have chosen for our family for now and I feel good about it.

The Dirty Dozen
The 12 most pesticide-laden types of produce
Peaches
Apples
Sweet Bell Peppers
Celery
Nectarines
Strawberries
Cherries
Pears
Imported grapes
Spinach
Lettuce
Potatoes

The Clean 12
Consistently showed the least amount of pesticide residue
Onions
Avocados
Sweet Corn
Pineapple
Mango
Asparagus
Sweet Peas
Kiwi
Bananas
Cabbage
Broccoli
Papaya

Info from data by the USDA and FDA 2000-2004

Best place to buy your produce is from a local farmer that you can talk to about their farming practices or grow it in your own backyard.

Hopefully, this did not bore you completely. Like I said before, I am no expert on this subject, and if you see any incorrect information PLEASE tell me...I want to know! We are trying to learn all we can to give our family better safer foods.
Join the "Band Wagon" or "The Band Wagon Extreme!"

Peed on Twice in One Day!

Pee #1:

I like to put Mckenzee in the sink to fix her hair. She likes to look at herself in the mirror and sometimes I even get her naked and turn on the water for her to play.

Today I was fixing her hair and letting her play in the water and I picked her up out of the sink to dry her off. I put her on my hip while Chris got a towel for us.........and then I felt the warmness.

How a little one year old could have that much pee in her I can't figure out. She never pees on me straight out of the bath or sink because I know she has just peed in the warm water she was sitting in.

There's nothing you can do once it's started. It doesn't benefit you to hold her out because then you have a mess in two places. So I just held on to her while she continued to soak me and then I handed her off to her daddy.

Pee #2

We spent the evening at church for a special event and visited with friends afterwards and got out of there way too late. Kenzee needed a diaper change very badly when we got to the car. I was all ready to change her and get her in her pajamas which I was very proud of myself for remembering because I knew she would probably fall asleep on the way home.

I took off her shorts and her diaper and was waiting for Chris to hand me the next diaper.

If you are a mom you have probably already noticed the mistake here. Important rule of diaper changing: Do not remove the first diaper until you have the new diaper positioned underneath it.

Then, he says to me there's not one. What? How could there not be one? I just refilled the bin we keep in the car.

Then, I look down to see that my naked child is peeing on my back seat. She is also smiling.

Again, it is not beneficial to move the peeing child. It would probably scare her and just drip pee in more places.

So now we have a naked baby and no more diapers. I found a cloth diaper in the bin that I would just use for messes. I wrapped it under her and tried to put her in her car seat.

She did not want to go.

Wall-eyed fit begins!

I begin to wrestle and fight with her to get her little hiney down in the car seat. If I can just get her to bend then I can get the harness clicked.

She is very strong.

It takes both of us to get her pinned down and she is screaming and I am sure people walking by wonder what we are doing to torture her.

In the meantime I have gotten myself in the pee on the seat.

It really doesn't matter to me right now. She is in her car seat with the cloth diaper wrapped under her little naked self and we are going home.

Early Mornings

Mckenzee has an ear infection.... AGAIN! I am not happy about this, especially because I was, for some reason, under the impression that breastfed babies don't get ear infections and this little one has had five! She doesn't sleep well when she has an ear infection, but it has actually been very sweet to get up with her the last few nights. The first night I got her and went and sat with her on the couch. I turned on Baby Einstein and she sat on my lap facing me. I closed my eyes. A few minutes later I feel some tiny soft fingers barely touching my nose. I open my eyes and she is right up close to my face and kisses me and smiles real big. I love that! A little while later I doze off. Then I feel a tiny soft mouth kissing me awake again. What a sweet girl. It makes it so worth it to get up from my cozy bed in the middle of the night to get kissed by my one year old.

This morning she woke up at 5:30. Daddy and I both got up to get her and she and I were sitting on the couch and he turned on the TV to get the dvd ready and we saw that the Eukanuba AKC dog show was on. Kenzee started pointing and whispering pup pup pup. So we decided to watch the dog show. She sat very still and pointed every now and then at the ones she liked. She loves puppies! It was fun. After awhile we put her back in bed and she slept until 9:00! Woo hoo!

God Cares about Mascara

I have been reading Connie's blogs about God taking care of us, even in the smallest details of our lives and I just have to share what happened to me today.

I have had pink eye this week. I need a new mascara. Arbonne's mascara is just the best and my eyes are super sensitive and that's what I need. However, it was not in the budget for this month, as Arbonne's mascara is not cheap. I got a shipment in today and my sister had ordered black mascara and........lo and behold there were TWO mascaras in there!

You might think that was just a coincidental mistake, but I am thanking God for bringing me some new mascara for FREE!

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

Matthew 6: 25-27

I love the weekends!

Chris works 9 hour days Mon-Thurs and only 4 hours on Friday. Granted this doesn't always hold true because things do come up at work, but for the most part we start our weekends at lunch on Friday. Chris makes pancakes on Saturday mornings and Kenzee plays naked in the living room. I wear my pajamas all day. I love spending time with my family.

These 2 and a half days make me long for more though...it is never enough. It makes me think every weekend how I need to conquer my fears about Arbonne and talking to people and get into high gear and make this happen for our family so everyday can be like the weekend.

I do work hard at it and I have talked to tons of people and I have had lots of setbacks, but there is always more I can do and always someone out there who has it really rough that made it happen for their family that inspires me to keep going.

Sometimes I wish I could see the future, but what fun would that be? I know that I am learning from every rejection and every hard night, every cancellation and zero volume party and God is growing me in personal development. I know that my story will someday help out another struggling consultant the way so many consultant's stories help me now. When will it happen though????

I know many of you reading this (not there there are that many people that read this blog) may not understand what I am talking about, but it helps me to get it off my chest. There are also probably those of you out there who think that I will never get there, that NWM doesn't work. That only inspires me more.

I have to keep telling myself that I will be an RVP! I will drive a white Mercedes! I just so badly want it to be soon!

Thanks for listening!

Fantasy Football

For those of you not familiar with fantasy football I'll give you a brief overview. In late August we have draft day (pictured above). On draft day you are allotted $40 million to purchase players for your fantasy team. You have to do some studying to be ready for draft day. The draft takes about 6 hours and is conducted in auction form. You have to buy players at every position to fill your roster, starters and backups, to make up a 24 man team.

My team is the Fightin' Junebugs. I won the championship three years ago. The next year I came in 4th in the playoffs. Last year I didn't play...I was having a baby. This year the Junebugs are back with a vengeance.

Chris' team is the Texas Stampede. His team has had the best record twice but has never won a title, he desperately longs to.

Last week was the first game of the season and we played each other. The final score was 129.15 to 129.05. Closest game in history! Chris won. I was sad.

Football will be on at our house all season no matter what, so this helps me get more involved and care about more games. This is something we can enjoy together and it's also very competitive. We are both out to win the championship....stay tuned to see how this season ends up!

Note: flags are Chris Roberts' originals