I survived and I think everyone had fun!

Sarah will be 5 in a few days and she wanted to celebrate by having a sleepover. So 4 little girls descended upon our house last night.

It wouldn’t be a sleepover without pizza…

And a Hannah Montana Birthday cake…

And a big smile from the birthday girl…

And candles being blown out…

And ice cream and balloons with the cake…

And presents…

And making Sun Catchers with glass beads…

Lots of glass beads…

And Sno-Cones right after breakfast…

(Because if you get a Sno-Cone maker for your birthday you have to have Sno-Cones right after breakfast!)

And a piñata filled with candy…

(Because if you eat Sno-Cones right after breakfast you have to eat sugary candy from the piñata. I think that’s a sleepover rule!)

And then after lots more giggling and squealing and playing, it was over. And the only thing that’s left to do is clean-up.

And convince Sarah that she doesn’t need to have another sleepover until next year, because I think that’s how long it’s going to take ME to recover!

We had fun even though my ears still hurt.

On Monday my husband wanted to do something special since it was Memorial Day. And I am always a fan of getting out of the house, so we decided on a quick trip to Pilot Mountain.

You might recognize Pilot Mountain as "Mt. Pilot" from the Andy Griffith show. It's only about a 30 minute drive from our house so we decided that would be our destination.


Before we left, we tried to convince Sarah to wear some sensible shoes. But the girl is all about fashion and decided that her pink faux-croc thong sandals that are embellished with crystals would be more appropriate than say her sneakers.

I was not surprised when after only two minutes on the trail up to the knob her right foot landed in a mud puddle and she began screaming and whining that the dirty sandal must be removed from her foot immediately. She wanted to walk barefooted.

We told her that she should have worn different shoes and that she has to keep the dirty shoes on until we get off the trail.

My husband is a man and he's half deaf so blocking out whining for an hour is no problem for him. However, when one of my kids is whining, I may as well be a dog and the whining may as well be a siren because it drives me mad.

So my husband and my son were totally oblivious and were traipsing happily along the trail while Sarah was whining and I was clawing at my ears as we lagged behind them.

We managed to get there between rain showers and were treated to gorgeous views.


And at one point Peter said, "This is better than buying a new toy!" (I'll have to remind him of this around Christmas.) And yes, Sarah is wearing a skirt because you don't wear pink sandals that are embellished with crystals with a pair of shorts.


And no, Sarah's not admiring the beauty of the overhanging rocks in the photo above, she has her back turned because she doesn't want to be in the picture.


But she did manage a few smiles. But mostly when it involved harassing her brother.

Over all, we enjoyed the hike up to the knob and the 0.8 mile walk around the knob. When it was over Sarah requested Dairy Queen.

Mmmmmmmmm....Dairy Queen!

Rats! If I hadn't been sick, skipped Shredding for 3 days and been eating like a pig and had Sarah not spent the last hour acting like a drama queen and whining like a 2 year-old, we totally would have totally gone to Dairy Queen.

Looks like another trip to Mt. Pilot may be in order!

Ding dong, the strep is gone!

I survived the weekend.

After a three hour fever-induced nap on Saturday and a big dose of Amoxicillin, I felt well enough to prepare dinner on Saturday evening.

And well enough for church on Sunday morning. But since I technically had not been on the antibiotics for 24 hours yet, I did not shake hands during the Sign of Peace.

For those of you who aren't Catholic, the Sign of Peace is the point in the Mass after the priest wishes the people the peace of Christ. Then we are supposed to shake hands and say to those around us, "Peace be with you."

I knew going in to Mass that I wasn't going to shake hands but I'm not sure whether it was too much Tylenol or not enough Amoxicillin but when the lady in front of me turned and said, "Peace be with you," I smiled and said, "Hey!" and gave a little wave.

Perhaps I should have stayed home.

Later that afternoon, we took the kids to see A Night At The Museum. Dan, Peter and I enjoyed it but after the 15 minutes of previews were finally over, Sarah leaned over to me and said, "Is the movie almost over?"

She was out of popcorn and ready to go home and the movie hadn't even started. She was a trooper though. And for the next 108 minutes, she barely whined.

Barely.

After the movie and the whining we headed to Jennifer's house for a cookout. Guess what? She had strep throat this weekend too.

People often confuse us. I'm not sure why...

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend. Even with the strep throat and all the rain, we had a nice time.

And last night, between bites of steak, Pioneer Woman's crashed hot potatoes and my mom's awesome baked beans, I even remembered to thank my husband and my father for their time spent serving this great country. Thanks, guys!

More of our exciting Memorial Day weekend to come later. And no, it really isn't that exciting and no, this isn't a cliff hanger. I'm just running out of time before Sarah gets out of preschool.

Miracle Monday

It's Miracle Monday, it's a holiday, and I am recovering from strep throat so I won't be posting a miracle today.

But I will leave Mr. Linky open if anyone would like to post a miracle and I would encourage everyone to hop over to Victoria's blog Let The Son Shine In. She is starting a new feature today called Miracles of the Mundane.

Miracles of the Mundane is all about noticing the providence of God in the everyday. I hope you will head over there to see what Victoria has going on.

I hope you all have a great Monday.

And Happy Memorial Day!

Strep throat and breakfast in bed...

On Friday afternoon I realized I had a sore throat.

On Saturday morning I realized I had strep throat.

So we piled into the car and headed to the local Urgent Care. And after a rapid strep test, it was confirmed. I definitely had strep throat.

I also had a fever so I came home and took a 3 hour nap. I never take naps so I think it worried the kids because later that afternoon when I got up from my nap, the kids told me they were going to make me breakfast in bed the next morning.

I told them that would be great and chuckled to myself at the thought of them dragging their father out of bed to help make me breakfast. Because every other weekend morning the kids are dragging me out of bed.

So imagine my surprise at 6:30 this morning when Peter and Sarah came giggling into my room. They proudly presented me with a bowl full of Kashi cereal. In addition to pouring the cereal and the milk, they had tossed in a handful of blueberries and they even cut up strawberries.

Through blurry, sleep-filled eyes I surveyed my breakfast in bed and decided that it was the best breakfast I had ever had.

Apparently Peter woke up and remembered his promise of breakfast in bed and got Sarah up and they both went into the kitchen to prepare it together. I think the part that makes me the happiest is that they did this together.

My breakfast in bed.

The cutest chefs ever!

How lucky am I?

The Red, White and Blue Salad. And in plenty of time for the Fourth of July!

In addition to Shredding every day, I have been trying to eat healthier meals. Because who wants to sweat with Jillian Michaels for 20 minutes every afternoon only to eat like a pig in the evenings?

It just seems counterproductive.

Here is the recipe for salad that I am currently enjoying. I like to call it the Red, White and Blue salad for obvious reasons.

My husband told me there's too much green in it to call it a Red, White and Blue salad but I told him the word salad covers all the green.

And then I told him not to rain on my cute-salad-name parade.

The Red, White and Blue Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

Salad Ingredients:
Baby spinach
Strawberries, sliced
Blueberries
Goat Cheese, sliced and crumbled

Dressing Ingredients:
1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar
1 tablespoon Splenda
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon of poppy seeds
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
In a small bowl, combine vinegar and Splenda. Whisk well.

Slowly add the oil while whisking and continue whisking until mixture is emulsified.

Cover and chill the dressing until ready to use.

Combine baby spinach, strawberries, blueberries and goat cheese.

Let dressing stand at room temperature for 5 minutes and whisk again before serving.

Dress salad and enjoy!

I don't mean to TOOT my own horn!

Yesterday was Day 22 of the 30 Day Shred.

And as of yesterday, I have done the Shred TWENTY ONE times. I admit that I skipped Mother's Day. But in my defense, I was at the beach and well, it was Mother's Day.

I have not lost any weight doing the Shred but at the same time, I haven't gained any either. And I have been doing A LOT of eating since starting the Shred.

For starters, I was at the beach and my mom cooked large breakfasts every morning, we ate dinner out every night and we went to Dairy Queen every afternoon.

But I am not disheartened by my lack of weight loss because I can actually see improvement in places other than on the scales.

The fat that hung over the top of the back of my jeans is practically gone. The fat that hung over the top of my bra is practically gone. My arms are becoming more defined and my stamina is increasing.

And best of all, I discovered that what I thought was old lady skin jiggling around on the top of my thighs was really just fat! Now when I do those plank jacks, there isn't as much movement going on down there!

I still have a lot to work on.

I would ultimately like to lose five pounds and I would like to see the fat that hangs over the front of the top of my jeans and the fat that hangs under the back of my bra strap to disappear.

And I would like to be able to eat a large bowl of Kashi cereal for breakfast and do the Shred in the afternoon without having what Sarah calls "exercise toots."

Is that too much to ask?

Birds do it. Bees do it. So what's my problem with flies doing it?

On Thursday afternoon I noticed quite a few flies buzzing around the cars in my garage. And by Friday they all made their way into my home.

I killed SIX of them in my house on Friday. SIX flies.

I thought I had things taken care of until I noticed several more on Saturday and then several more on Sunday. Luckily Sarah still likes to kill flies so she and Dan took care of those for me.

Peter forgot to bring his lunch box home from school on Friday. And he stayed home from school sick on Monday and Tuesday but yesterday afternoon his buddy Colton brought his lunch box home for him.

And when Colton and his brother came in yesterday I guess several more flies snuck in with them.

Do they still make fly paper? Because if they do I think I am going to see if I can somehow work large strips of it into my decor. Think greasy spoon circa 1974.

As I was removing the not-so-icy ice pack and the empty sandwich container from Peter's lunch box, I realized that part of his turkey and Swiss sandwich was hiding under a crumpled up napkin.

I quickly discarded the remnants of the sandwich and shook the crumbs from the lunch box. I placed the lunch box on the counter with the intention that I would scrub it in a few minutes.

When I glanced at the lunch box a couple of minutes later I noticed this:

(Image taken from Backpackerinfo.net.)

Two flies had landed in my son's lunch box and were mating!

Oh no! They are mating! In my son's lunch box! I am going to have flies everywhere if I can't nip this in the bud! These were the thoughts there were tumbling around in my head as I quickly closed the lid on the lunch box and ran to get the fly swatter.

When I opened the lid they flew out to seek shelter from the crazy lady with the orange fly swatter.

I grabbed the Lysol Food Surface Sanitizer and as I was pumping massive quantities into Peter's lunch box I heard him say, "Mommy look! These two flies are sitting on top of one another!"

I grabbed the fly swatter and in one swift motion those flies were laying dead on the floor.

But don't feel sorry for those flies. At least they died happy.

Miracle Monday

It's Miracle Monday and I'm a little upset!

I had been working on a post for over two hours and was almost ready to hit publish when I realized that I screwed up some of the HTML code and now over half of my post is gone! That's what I get for even looking at the HTML code.

And my kids are up now (Peter is actually staying home from school today with a fever) and Monday is about to begin so I don't have time to recreate the post.

But I do welcome your miracles so please write your own Miracle Monday post and link to it below using Mr. Linky.

Have a great Monday every one and remember if you aren't a professional - stay away from HTML!