Bein' Green

We LOVE going to the Farmer's Market, but there's only so much shopping going on when you have to chase the world's fastest two year old. We usually come home with a slab of bacon, random fruits and vegetables and something I was forced to buy to remedy Cooper's wandering hands that wreck shop on those poor display tables!

I recently read The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, holy schmoley. That will make you think twice about where the food you are eating comes from! I'm not a huge stickler, the Coop can get down with some french fries with the best of them! BUT, we cook a lot and given the choice I like to choose local and organic food for all of the feel good reasons plus it tastes better when its fresh. Personally, I'd just rather eat something that has ripened on the vine than plucked green and shipped 1,800 miles to get to me! [Steps off soapbox.]

A friend recently pointed me to Greenling which is a local food delivery service. They basically deliver the Farmer's Market to your front door...free delivery! I've had friends that have done co-op deliveries in the past that ended up with weekly deliveries of 10 heads of lettuce and some fennel.  With Greenling, you can choose a weekly or bi-weekly delivery, OR you can preview the local box and decide if you want to buy it or not, no commitment! I think they serve Houston, DFW and central TX right now so check them out if this resonates with you!

I just got my first box yesterday, here are some of the yummy contents:

This week's box:

The Cooper boy's dinner tonight, Greenling veggies and some salmon!

Love this!

A Mother's Day serenade, by Cooper

Ahh, Mother's Day. I'm not too hard to please. All I want is a day spent with family (without changing a diaper), breakfast in bed and a couple of hours to myself to do a deep closet clean. Why is it that on Mother's Day all I want is to enjoy my family without acting like a Mom? Is this what Dads feel like everyday?! Just kidding honey...mostly.

The closet is done and I have three full bags to send to Goodwill. I even had time to organize the stuff I'm keeping! I went with two categories: stuff that fits and the other 95% of my clothes! 

Here's a shout out to all of you lovely Mamas out there from the Cooper boy.  I hope you like "Hey Jude" as much as he does. (Please excuse my singing in the background!) I found this little gem while going through the beach pics on my phone, hence the beach reference!

Cooper sings Hey Jude, kind of...

Happy Mother's Day! 

Life's a Beach

Take me back to Rosemary Beach!  Not that I don't love my home, but landing in H town with thunderstorms all around makes me want to hop back on the plane...

We spent the better part of this week at the beach, and by that I mean ON the beach! The kid wanted nothing to do with the pool and we had nice weather so it was fine with us! He spent his time smashing sand castles, chasing the waves, throwing sand into the water and going out into the ocean with his Dad to wait for the "big one", which of course was the "wave that turns white" in two year old language. He was FEARLESS!

I think Cooper finally realized that Daddy is much more fun than Mommy, at least when it comes to my level of energy right now and my willingness to go in freezing cold water!

Cooper's attempt to get us to go to the beach faster, bringing shoes downstairs.  Kyle got two boat shoes, I only got one lousy tennis shoe.

The daily walk to the beach.  So much for lugging the stroller!

I could NOT keep him full!

For documentation's sake, the big white bellies!  Shield your eyes!

I couldn't have asked for a better trip or a more well behaved kid. It was awesome pre-baby bonding time for all of us!

Road to recovery

I am very happy to report that Kyle went to the doctor today and his platelet count is up to 52,000! The doctor wanted him to be at least 35,000...such an overachiever! We are thrilled!

Keep 'em coming, babe!

My Dancing Harry

This week we've been battling a little health crisis on the homefront...

On Monday, Kyle noticed some weird bruising on his arm and spots on his hands.  Otherwise he felt fine and perfectly normal. When he was 12, he had a very rare immune disorder called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) and the bruising looked similar to him...red flag!  As I understand it, ITP can be triggered by a virus and then your immune system malfunctions and begins attacking your platelets.  He went to the general practitioner on Tuesday to get some blood tests.  He got a call very early yesterday morning from her telling him him to go immediately to the emergency room.  When you get a call from your GP at 6:30am you know something is not normal.  His platelet count was 8,000 and the normal range is 150,000 to 400,000.  Basically, at that level, he could have spontaneous bleeding internally, brain included, and, well...you know.

We got to the hospital to try to figure out what was going on.  Unfortunately, ITP can not be diagnosed on its own, you have to rule out everything else and then by default it is ITP.  So we spent yesterday first ruling out the really bad stuff (thank GOD) and then coming up with a plan of action.  The doctor decided to go with a really aggressive steroid treatment to try to keep his immune system from attacking his platelets.  She said the steroids could make him extra hungry, prone to gaining weight, unable to sleep at night and super cranky. Just what we need, another "pregnant" person at the house!

He got to come home yesterday and we are going back to the hospital tomorrow to check his platelet count.  His doctor would like to see them at 35,000.  He is pretty much on house restriction at the moment until we know that the steroids are working. They work in most cases! 

Time Out!

Time for a time out revamp! Cooper's time out spot used the be in the nursery, his old room. With baby Charles #2's arrival quickly approaching, I had to come up with an alternate solution. I can't remember where I first saw the idea of a "time out mat", but I think it's so smart. I'm a big fan of keeping things consistent and a time out spot that can travel with you is perfect. Side note: busting this thing out at a restaurant is cringeworthy, but I'm hoping that down the road, the sight of it getting in the car with us will do the trick.

After finding some online for $24 a pop, I decided to make my own. I consulted my friend Taryn, the most creative person I know, on how to go about this. Considering the last time I took on an art project was probably in the 90's, I asked if puff paint was still acceptable. She didn't reply, which I took as a no, but she pointed me in the direction of the 99 cent plastic mats at Target. It's not pretty, but it will do!

And what, might you ask, would send this little angel face to his time out mat? Here's exhibit 89a, cocoa powder in the hair and all over the kitchen after he threw a fit when I wouldn't open it for him! Everyday a new adventure!

The Story of Us

With our 6th wedding anniversary coming up this weekend, I thought I'd take a minute to tell the story of how we met...

Kyle and I met each other long before we started dating. In the fall of 2003, I was sitting with a friend in the business school at A&M (whoop!) trying to get people to sign up for our sorority charity golf tournament. In walks Kyle, decked out from head to toe in A&M football gear, backwards hat and a huge grin on his face. He knew my friend and immediately starts chatting to both of us, asking us if he could take us to lunch at Cain Hall. For those non-Aggies out there, Cain Hall is student athlete ONLY dining, as if his get-up didn't give him away already. "Ohhh, you're a football player?!" It didn't matter, I was smitten nonetheless and thought he was the most gorgeous guy to walk the A&M campus.  BUT...I had a boyfriend, and when he called my friend later that night to get my phone number she told him the same, in so many words.  As Kyle tells it, she said "I knew you were hitting on her you a**hole, she has a BOYFRIEND."  Ha!

Fast forward a year later to the fall of 2004. Kyle's roommate was attempting to date my roommate and so the boys set out to find a distraction for me so that the lovebirds could have some alone time.  After all, we were senior girls and we wanted nothing more than to karaoke and piano bar every night!  Never mind that I had a different boyfriend at the time...he was in total senior mode as well! (Funny, I hadn't run into Kyle one time during that year which is really weird considering how many friends from school we have in common.)

Enter Kyle, the distraction.  This time he wasn't taking the ol' boyfriend excuse for an answer.  He was a gentleman, but the first time I was left at a date party by my boyfriend, he went in for the kill. A few weeks later we were on our first date, sushi in College Station (questionable food, great date) and we've rarely been separated ever since. We were engaged in 2006, married in 2007 and almost 9 years later with a cat, dog and 2 year old in tow (and one more on the way!), he still gets me every time he wears that backwards hat and big grin.  (Oh, those dimples!)

Happy Anniversary, Schug!