can you believe...

can you believe that someday this man will give this little girl away?
when i look at this picture, i can't think of anything else. it is so innocent and pure, it just melts my heart.
who says grown men aren't supposed to cry?
i am glad i was able to catch this one amongst the chaos, it is a keeper for sure.

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY KODA!!

the little things in life...

ally's giggle...
the smell of breakfast cooking and coffee brewing...
a warm hug from hubby...
petting koda and logan's fur...
knowing what you are having for dinner...
bright sunshine and a warm breeze...
the smell of fresh cut grass...
DVR (b/c i haven't watched grey's season finale yet-shhh!)...
tickets to see Sex and the City friday night with karyn...
and last but not least...

the pens winning game 3 last night!

in a day full of chaos and havoc...i can always find time to appreciate the little things in life.

thankful

we have had the sheer pleasure of enjoying a wonderful vacation in new york visiting friends and family. i have some pics to share later, but i wanted to be thankful for the beautiful weather we were blessed with all weekend...it was bright and sunny unlike the 2 weeks worth of cold, rainy, grey days. of course koda and logan have been enjoying the healthy green grass and trees with shade in my mother-in-law's beautiful yard, they may just want to be left behind because they have been able to freely enjoy the outdoors again. unlike home when they have been cooped indoors due to apartment house living and bad weather.
of course ally has been eating up all the attention as well. she has slept the last 4 nights in a big girl bed, i guess she is ready for bigger and better. it is furniture shopping time for us! all that worrying for nothing!
we will be back home by wednesday...i will return emails and phone calls after my interview on thursday. this interview is for slippery rock again...hopefully i will know more about the public school positions soon. this stuff really takes time and patience.
i hope everyone was able to enjoy the long weekend and all the great barbecue food!

god's pharmacy

i found something in my email i wanted to share with you. the health teacher in me made me do it. bare with me if you have seen this before...

God left us a great clue as to what foods help what part of our body!

God's Pharmacy

A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye... and YES, science now shows carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.


A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows & amp; lt; tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.


A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left a nd right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds on the nut are just like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.


Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and many more look just like bones. These foods specifically t arget bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don't have enough sodium in your diet, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.


Avocados, Eggplant and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied a n d named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of Sperm as well to overcome male sterility.



Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.


Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries

Oranges, Grapefruits, and other Citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.


Onions look like the body's cells. Today's research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes. A working companion, Garlic, also helps eliminate was t e materials and dangerous free radicals from the body.

what's up

what's up with this weather???? i swear april was much nicer than may this year! if you're living up north like me, then you are definitely experiencing springtime withdrawl. it makes me miss the south, more than i care to admit. it has been raining for the past two weeks here and the temps have barely grazed 55, it looks as if someone took the grey crayola crayon and went buck wild in the sky with it. it is shear torture to have to put on my winter fleece, not to mention socks and shoes!
today, i decided it was decent enough to TRY washing my car, so after the gym i drove by the carwash. this is the manual kind of carwash where you have to get out and powerwash the bugs off the front and soap up the entire car in a matter of seconds. it is like the GREAT RACE, oh, the pressure! anyways, i was able to complete my carwashing in due time, so i decided it was in need of some vaccuuming (badly in need)as well. i pulled over to the vac area...and what do you know... as i loaded the coins, it started to down pour! i think the steam from my ears made it obvious that i was bit peeved. there i was, all alone, with a running vac in hand and standing in a complete down pour of sorts.
needless to say, i was wet, the car was wet and for the 14th day in a row everything outside was wet as well.

price of the carwash $4
price of the vac $1
seeing me wet with vac in hand PRICELESS

an almost 2 year old's world

i have had the joy of spending more quality time with ally now that i am off for the summer. needless to say, i have been being put to the test lately. not just by her whining phases, fickle ways or ability to ignore me when i mean business either.

more so, about the ways of the world through a toddler's eyes.

so, last night we were playing in the tub with some colored cups...i was spouting off the colors while ally would repeat them like clockwork. green - geen, blue - bue, when all of sudden, ally says...

"no mommy, geen".
i then said, "you mean blue, right?" (clearly the cup was blue, i swear it.)

ally replied, "noooo mommy, geen". "it geen mommy", then she replied with her favorite little toddler expression these days..."mommy, you silly." like i was the toddler and she was the mommy.

all of sudden it hit me...after countless hours from infancy to the present day i have been trying to teach ally about everything in the world there is to know while working hard to expand her knowledge and inevitably she is going to see things in her own way no matter what i say.

even though i failed the toddler color test, i feel quite refreshed in knowing that i may not be alone in this world of toddler-hood after all. i am no longer behind the parenting curve of learning. a revolutionary discovery of sorts...no means yes, shush means louder, sleep means play and green means blue.

to be honest, things would be much easier if these little toddlers would come equipped with a printed manual and a battery pack that you can detach.

note to self: next child, tip nurses.

ear follow up...and stuff

this morning ally had her post-op appointment for her ears. so far so good. the tubes are in tact and she did very well on the hearing test. there is a bit of crust (for lack of a better word) encasing the right tube causing a little blockage so i have to put some medicated drops in her right ear for about 10 days to see if it will dissolve on its own. if not, a more evasive method will have to be done by Doc Chi in order to open it up to its full potentional. i will be saying my prayers both day and night that the little tube opens on its own...if not ally will not be the only one crying, i will be too. mostly out of frustration while holding her down so the doc can insert a foreign object down the canal in order to open it...sounds like fun, huh? i think i will recruit keith for this one.
unfortunately, b/c children's hospital was so busy, i missed my dentist appointment this morning to have my cavity filled...i was pretty upset about it - LOL! actually, it was a relief. i wasn't in the mood to be poked and prodded this morning - especially since it was monday. what was i thinking scheduling that today anyways???
it will be a short week as we are leaving for vacation. we are off to new york to visit keith's family and friends. it should be a fun time, as always. the drive will be a little rough, but our plan is to break it up into two days which usually helps. just me, keith, ally, the bears and the open road...ahh.
another hot topic to discuss esp. here in the burgh...how about those pens??? i am telling you pittsburgh is the place to be especially since i moved here -- hahahaha, just kidding. i must say that the last time they competed for the stanley cup was the summer before my senior year in college. i can still remember partying at my old apartment, 1024 washington street. if that place was still standing they would probably still be finding confetti from the night they won! this time around i will have to act more sophisticated, since i am in mom-mode nowadays. if i could just get bronco revved up - then maybe i could let loose! (sorry inside joke for those who know bronco!).