Just another weekend..

Oh, it hardly seems we just started the weekend and here we are on Sunday evening and another week will start shortly! Our weekend has been pretty low key and I’m ok with that. Ava really needed some extra rest after being so sick. I’m glad to report that except for a nasty cough that has come on, she seems to be mostly recovered and back to her old antics.

We got a call this morning that Zach’s grandma passed away in the middle of the night. She had a very brief battle with cancer and the end was very rough for all involved. Please join me in praying for Zach’s dad and aunt, and entire family as we prepare to say goodbye this week. I know we are all thankful that her suffering has come to an end.

After church, we spent a quiet afternoon at home. Ava played outside a little bit and I got busy making dinner. We had homemade lasagna! YUM!

This is my FAVORITE lasagna. I don’t even like the stuff at most Italian restaurants b/c it just doesn’t compare to this!

We also bought a loaf of fresh french bread to make garlic bread. I spread butter on each slice and then sprinkled this on it: It got rave reviews! This is how we will be making garlic bread from now on! Soooo good!

Last week we were supposed to have dinner with my family, but my sister came down with the flu so we had to cancel. I had already bought the ingredients to make a dessert and went ahead and made it this weekend so my strawberries wouldn’t go bad.

This is a Strawberry Tres Leche Trifle. I made it for a Pampered Chef party a couple weeks ago and it was HUGE hit! It’s got pound cake, strawberries and some other goodies that just make it what it is! It is delicious and light. With it coming up, this would be a great spring time dessert!

If you’re interested in either recipe, let me know.

They are predicting some possible severe weather tonight. I hope we don’t get anything major, but as far as I’m concerned, bring on the rain!

Alright, time to settle down for some Amazing Race and the Oscars! Have a happy week!

P.S. – Be on the lookout. Super giveaway coming up very soon!

Sickies, a play house, and a play date

Whew! What a week! All day Monday, Ava acted completely normal. We went to the doctor that afternoon to see about rocks, and we found out she had an eye infection, a sinus infection and a double ear infection! Poor thing! you never would have known from the way she was acting!

We got home after filling her prescription, and all of a sudden, she was very warm and very cranky. She had a fever of 102 and it came out of nowhere. She was miserable. Her fever stayed between 102 and 103 for 36 hours – not fun! She hardly moved off the couch on Tuesday! Her fever finally broke Wednesday afternoon, but it was back slightly this morning. She hasn’t been to school all week!

I’m staying with her for a while this morning and then my mom is going to come get her and love on her this afternoon. Zach and I have both missed a lot of work this week and she doesn’t have anything to do this afternoon so she wants to help. Ava keeps asking when “Hama” is coming to get her.

Before the sickness struck, we managed to have a bit of fun. Sunday afternoon was gorgeous and we finally put together Ava’s Christmas present!

She keeps looking out the window and saying “my tree house” and wants to go play with it so badly!

We also were able to squeeze in a play date with our friend, Miss K! We’ve been trying to get these girls together for a while and just haven’t had a chance. They had so much fun playing together!! They played very hard and were both very ready for naps at the end! They took turns pushing each other in the doll stroller….    We were so glad K got to come play and I was so glad to catch up with K’s mama!!

Ok, now that the important stuff (blogging) is done, I’m going to go do a few things before heading to work! It’s almost the weekend y’all!!

Between a rock and a… nose???

Y’all. Seriously. My child may send me to the loony bin. Friday afternoon, Zach picked Ava up and she was crying that her nose hurt. She’d had a runny nose and we just thought maybe it was raw from us wiping her nose.

So, when I got home and tried to wipe it, she SCREAMED. Ok. That was unusual so we just rubbed some medicine on the outside and she said it was better.

Every time we’d try to blow her nose over the next two days, the same thing would happen. She woke up this morning and after getting out of the shower, her eye looked a little swollen and irritated. We went on to church and during church, she had a little snot with a tiny bit of blood coming out of her nose. I figured we’d need to probably make a trip to the doctor tomorrow. A while after we got home, I noticed a long trail of snot and tried to wipe her nose. She freaked, kicking and screaming and going crazy.

I told Zach to get a flashlight so we could look at her nose. It didn’t look irritated. Zach yelled at me to get the tweezers and I came in with them and he said “She has a rock in her nose.” Are you freaking kidding me?!?! So I go in there and can totally see a rock amidst all the snot. Just keepin’ it real, here. Zach was able to just wiggle her nose a little and worked the rock out with his hands. So after that, I was thankful and thought maybe we were clear. Oh no. Then Zach realized there was another one in there, only much higher!

At this point I realized we probably needed to get some help. I didn’t know whether to go to the walk-in clinic or the ER. On our way home, we passed one walk-in clinic and no joke, every single parking space was filled. I wasn’t crazy about the ER option either. My mom told me to call our pediatrician’s answering service b/c he’s been known to meet people at the ER and if that was the case, maybe we wouldn’t have to wait as long. Well, in between calling the answering service, and them calling me back, Ava sneezed twice and after the second one, the second rock came flying out.

We don’t think there are any more up there, but the nurse who called us back told us to definitely monitor her and her breathing today and to follow up with her doctor tomorrow to make sure there are no more rocks. I’m also concerned about an infection just because after having rocks blocking her sinuses for 2 days, it could be possible. Her eye still looks awful and I can’t help but think it’s all related.

And here they are, folks! The round one was the one that came out first. The flat one was wedged quite a ways up there. Praying, praying, praying that there are no others in there.

What else is this girl going to throw our way?!

A beautiful Valentine’s Day!

I don’t know about where you live, but it is gorgeous here today!! The sun is shining. It’s almost 70 degrees. Beautiful! I love it!!!

I’ll share some pics of our cute little valentine in just a minute, but first I thought I’d share some from yesterday. The weather was beautiful, so in the afternoon we took Ava outside to ride her “bicycle”. Our driveway is very steep so we just took her down to the street, and she rode back and forth and had so much fun! She didn’t want to stop riding! I can’t believe how grown up she is looking these days. She seems to be losing her last bit of “babyness”. Sad.

She was having a Valentine’s party today at school so we dressed for it! (She has one tomorrow too – they always have 2 to make sure all the kids who only come on certain days get to participate).

Mom and her sweet Valentine!! 

My two loves!!!!

Wishing you and yours a Happy Love day!

more snow

Zach and Ava had another snow day today. And they have another tomorrow. I have to say, I’m glad that the prediction of our area to get the heavy band of snow was a little off. 60 miles north of here, they saw 2 feet of snow, which is crazy for our area!

I, of course, still had to work. When I got home a little early, we bundled Ava up for a bit of time outside. She used to love the snow, and now she pretty much doesn’t like it.

We have a fairly steep driveway so we decided to see if she’d enjoy sledding down it in the recycle can lid. She didn’t really like that either! Look at the excitement – ha!

 

The other night we saw a re-cap of the Christina Aguilera butchering the national anthem, Ava picked up her microphone and started mimicking her by raising her hand. It was funny!

I have had a cruddy cold this week. I have felt pretty yucky, but with all the nastiness going around, I’m not complaining. I’ll take a cold over some of the sicknesses any day! I’m definitely ready for winter to wrap up and spring to move on in!

Thank goodness tomorrow is Thursday – that means we are another day closer to the weekend! Hope you are all safe and warm!!

a blog post with absolutely no substance

It’s Superbowl Sunday? I really don’t care about the big game. Sure they commercials are fun, and don’t forget the food. But the game doesn’t excite me much.

However, the GLEE episode coming on after is what I’m waiting for!!! And not only do we get tonight’s episode, we get another one Tuesday! Woohoo! 

I’d been trying to get in a better habit of blogging lately but there just wasn’t much going on this week. Zach and Ava got two snow days and could be looking at more this week. As for me, I’m done with the snow. I hate worrying about whether or not the roads will be safe when I finally get to leave work. Goodbye, winter. C’mon spring.

One thing i want to make sure and get down is last weekend we officially transitioned Ava to her toddler bed. As long as she wasn’t climbing out, we weren’t moving her. She learned how to climb out a long time ago but it scared her enough she didn’t do it again until a few weeks ago, and then she did it every night. So now she’s in her converted bed and doing well. Another step closer to big girl land. Now if the potty training would come…

Although for some reason, Saturday morning she woke up at 4:00 a.m…. ugh.. and was up for the day. She fell asleep in the car for just a bit.

Unfortunately she woke up as soon as we got home and then didn’t feel like sleeping again. Oh well. We survived.

Wish I had something more interesting to write about but for once, life is quiet. Hope you all have a good week and don’t get blasted by the next snow storm!