Another year older...

Wow, it has been a really long time since I have blogged--I am horrible at keeping up lately. We have had a ton of things going on here--too many to mention right now, but hopefully I can find some time this week to blog about what we have been up to. I had a birthday about a week ago, hence the title of the post. This year was the big 3-7, and for some reason, that number has been really hard for me. I think it is the fact that it is an odd number, and those always sound a little bit older to me :-) I have, however, decided that this is the year in my life that I am going to make a true and real effort to get healthy with my eating and exercising habits. I am putting this in my blog so that I can hopefully look back in about a year and report that I have kept up with both and that I feel much better than I do now :-) I have started walking our trails we have here in Columbia and also going to classes at the gym. I agreed to run a 5k with Shon in October in Memphis, and am also doing the points program with Weight Watchers again. Shon bought me a cool little gadget called a Fitbit, and it tracks how many steps I take each day, how many calories I have burned, how many miles I have walked, and how many flights of stairs I have climbed. (On side note, I walked with my mom in my old neighborhood this week, and afterwards I had 15 flights of stairs on my Fitbit--it's very hilly :-) I will hopefully be back with more news later in the week, but wanted to put these thoughts down before anymore time passed.

18 month check up

Will had his 18 month check up today. He weighed 24 lbs 6 oz, and was 32 inches tall. His head was tracking along at the 95th percentile, while his weight had dropped to a little below the 50th and his height was also at the 50th. He is walking all over the place--he is super fast and can get away from me quickly if I don't watch it--he likes to take off at church after he gets out of the nursery and run around people to get "free". He is talking a ton now--today he spilled some juice on the floor in the kitchen and as I was cleaning it up I apparently missed a spot so he pointed and said more der (more there). He understands a lot of words and is really enjoying "helping" me around the house--he loves to unload the silverware from the dishwasher :-) He still loves to climb the stairs but will usually wait for someone to help him get down. He enjoys playing with any type of ball, and for Christmas he received a set of nesting boxes, and he LOVES them--he will build a tall tower over and over again. He also received an alphabet train that he can ride on which he is enjoying riding front and backwards. He is still eating some 2nd and 3rd foods for supper mostly but loves deli turkey and cheese for lunch just about everyday. He loves all types of breakfast food, and really enjoys drinking his milk and orange juice, but his favorite drink seems to be ice water. He is still wearing a size 4 diaper and is wearing 18-24 month clothing and some 2T pajamas. He is still enjoying going to school--they said he has really been happy the last few weeks he has been going and loves playing and eating :-) He is still receiving physical therapy once a week and speech therapy every 2 weeks, but we have added in occupation therapy every 2 weeks as well, on an opposite schedule of speech. So he has 2 therapies a week right now. Well, this is really long since I haven't done a monthly update in about 4 months, so if you have read all the way down I am impressed :-)

A week of sickness and kids out of school

Well, Will has continued to run fever all week. We went to the doctor on Wednesday, and she told me his ear had some fluid in it, but it wasn't infected yet. He also had a pretty bad cough and fever. She gave me an antibiotic and told me to watch him for a day or so and if he wasn't better to give it to him. Now I am usually really good to follow that advice and wait, but this time I just had a feeling he was not going to be getting better, so I went ahead and filled the antibiotic and started it Wednesday night. I'm really glad I did--his temp jumped up again that evening, and his nose started pouring. He has also been battling watery, runny eyes. He was up in the night on Wednesday night and ended up sleeping in bed with us--which means I didn't get much sleep at all. He was up from 1 until 3 am and I finally got him down in his bed. He spent most of Thursday and Friday in my lap on the couch. I really couldn't put him down too much or he would really get upset:-( Caleb stayed home on Wednesday due to a headache and stomachache. All 3 older kids were home on Friday for teacher work day, so I did not have much of a break this week. I started feeling bad on Thursday evening/Friday morning and today I am really not feeling well-I have a headache and sore throat and am also coughing. So, I am pretty sure that whatever Will has is viral, but he also has been really tugging his ear, so I am glad that I started the medicine. He is really acting a lot like he has RSV, so I am watching his cough and breathing very closely. It is not as dangerous at his age as it would be if he was a tiny baby, but it could definitely make him wheeze, so that is what I am watching for. He seems to be feeling better this am, so I am hopeful that he is on the mend. I really don't have anything else to report as I have been stuck on the couch for the past few days:-) Hoepfully everyone will be recovered and stay well for their Valentine's parties--they older kids are getting really excited and I have a few treats to make for their classes.

Sickness and recap

Will started running fever yesterday and continued today, which means no school for him tomorrow, which means no break for me tomorrow. And Friday the big kids are out of school, so this week I won't really get any "me" time. Will apparently is going to be the child that gets hyper whenever he runs fever, because he was all over the house today and only slept for about 45 minutes at nap time. He did enjoy sitting on my lap for 10-15 minutes at a time, but when he would get too still, he would get down so he wouldn't fall asleep:-) He also has a yucky cough and sounds hoarse. I think it is just a virus but I will be watching him to make sure nothing else pops up. We watched the Super Bowl on Sunday (well, I mostly watched the commericals) and ate really unhealthy but good food:-) I fixed chili, mozzarella sticks, 7 layer dip, little smokies, and homemade beer-battered onion rings. Jake had asked me to make brownies, but we ran out of time (and room in the kitchen). The kids enjoyed watching the Super Bowl and staying up a little later than normal. This week they are out of school on Friday for a teacher workday. We are having a bit of weather right now--not sure it is going to stick or make us miss anything tomorrow, but we will see. Totally random post again, but that is how the week has been.

Oven fried chicken

This recipe is for me, since I combined a few different ones to come up with this one--it was really good and moist and the crust on the chicken was wonderful. Here are the ingredients:

chicken (I used boneless skinless chicken breast, but you can use whatever type you like. I might try chicken legs next time.)
flour
buttermilk
corn flakes
2 eggs
milk
panko bread crumbs
paprika
salt
pepper
crisco (enough to brown chicken in)

1. Rinse chicken and sprinkle each side generously with salt, pepper, and paprika.
2. Place chicken in ziploc bag and pour buttermilk over chicken until covered.
3. Put bag in fridge for at least 24 hours to make moist. I actually left mine in for 2 days because I didn't get to cook it the day I had originally wanted to.
4. After marinating chicken, set up your assembly line--eggs mixed with milk, flour mixed with salt/pepper/paprika, and a ziploc bag with equal parts crushed corn flakes and panko. I don't give any measurements because it just depends on your tastes and how much chicken you have to cook.
5. Heat crisco in large skillet.
6. Take your chicken from the buttermilk mixture. Dip it in the flour, then the egg, and then your cornflake mixture. Place chicken in skillet and brown on each side.
7. After chicken is browned, place in pyrex dish and bake in oven at 400 until chicken is done. I baked mine for 50 minutes because the chicken breasts I used were huge.
8. I served this with mashed potatoes and milk gravy and green beans.
If anything isn't clear please comment and I will try to clear things up. I don't have a picture yet but will try to take one of the leftovers:-)

Will dancing :-)

Will was really hyper today after we got home from Bible study--he had apparently spilled water down the front of his onesie and after I got everything off and changed his diaper, he took of. Here is some of what he was doing:

No pain, no gain

It has been unseasonably warm here the last few days-my kids wore shorts to school today and Will had his physical therapy appointment outside yesterday. I bought a deal on our local add sheet for 10 Jazzercise classes for $18. I decided today would be the first day I would try to go. It was fun but I am so sore this evening--I can't imagine how I am going to feel tomorrow:-) We haven't had a lot going on the past few days--Jake had his 100th day of school celebration yesterday and we had to send a 100 ct snack to school--we picked M&M's. He had a good day Monday and an even better day today--we have been having a few issues with him not wanting to do his work and this week he has done a great job of doing everything he is supposed to--I am very proud of him. This is another random post but that seems to be how our life is lately:-)