The Usual Catch-Up Post

I never mean to allow three weeks between my posts, but life just seems to go by at warp speed these days -- especially now that it is spring and blueberries are ready and we are getting ready for our season on the tomato farm.  Work has been taking up most of my time lately, and we won't even talk about how much of Brad's time it is taking up already.  You know it's bad when your child (Sanders) says to you "you know how you're always at work, and we are always with Kaitlyn (the babysitter)?"  Talk about a knife through a mommy's heart...and why don't they seem to notice that Daddy is always at work, even longer than Mommy?

Anyway, here's what's been going on, aside from work, since last we spoke.

Tyler got her braces on.  She already had the expander and some sort of contraption in the bottom, but now they have added brackets on her top permanent teeth.  She has been a real trooper through it all, and she has been great about brushing and flossing and all of the fun extra dental hygiene that comes along with a mouth full of metal.  And turning the key in her expander was really no big deal -- I was prepared for the worst, but she was a rock star as far as that went!  I am so proud of her.

I have cooked some good recipes that I wanted to share through some links...

These buffalo chicken rolls were awesome.  And easy.  Two words I love when describing a recipe.  

This Roasted Tomatoes with Shrimp and Feta makes my mouth water when I think about it.  It is easy, too, if you can get past peeling the shrimp.  I am the world's worst shrimp peeler, so it takes me forever.  I try to always have shrimp when Brad will be home to peel them, but I have done it twice for this recipe...it's that good that I will go through the effort! 

This pasta is an old standby, and I love, love, love it.  I could eat it once a week, I think.  

This past weekend I went to the wedding of one of my best guy friends from high school.  If you count the fact that our mothers went to lamaze classes together, I have known Justin since we were in utero, so he is really one of my oldest friends.  Justin married one of my brother's old girlfriends, so it was all of my old friends and Graham's old friends in one place.  It was great to see so many people from high school and to catch up on everyone's lives.  Most of us keep in touch pretty often, and we all know how Facebook makes the world so small, but I hadn't seen some of my friends since college!

Most of the weekend you could find the kids and me here...

We finally got to spend some time at the beach when it was actually warm (last time we went for the afternoon, it was freezing!) -- in fact, it was pretty perfect.  The kids are at an age where I can pretty much sit in a chair, look at a magazine, and relax.  (Of course, I keep my eyes on them, but I don't have to be quite as crazy about it as I was even last year; they just are growing up too fast.)

We also enjoyed our first watermelon of the year, but what do you know, I grabbed a seeded one from Brad's packing house.  But, at least the kids got to practice their seed-spitting skills.

It Begins

In some ways it seems like a million years ago, but in others it seems like just yesterday that I was at my orthodontist's office pitching a fit because he wouldn't take my braces off when I wanted him to do it.

Now my child is there, in that same orthodontist's office, getting her own set of braces.  Or at least, her own set of dental torture devices.  We haven't quite gotten to the braces yet -- those come in two weeks.  We started off this Monday getting two teeth pulled... 

(I say "we."  I mean Tyler.  I would have been a big, fat baby about this whole ordeal, but Tyler handled it like a champ.  I am really proud of how well she did!)

Poor girl bled all afternoon after getting those teeth out.  She had to walk around with this gauze in her mouth, and I couldn't understand a word she said.  Little did I know that that was just practice for later on in the week...

On Wednesday Ty got to skip the entire day of school because she had to go get her torture devices put in.  The first one is a palatal expander.  I escaped ever having to have one, but both my sister and brother had them, and I remember the horrors my mom went through turning the key in that thing every night.  Now I'm doing it.  It's not fun.

Tyler also has this contraption in the bottom of her mouth that is supposed to pull the bottom of her jaw forward.  It has this big, plastic part that covers all of her bottom teeth, and so she sounds like she is talking with something in her mouth at all times.  That and she drooled all over the place for the first two days.

This is what her mouth looks like now:

Or it is what her mouth looks like until we go get the braces on her top permanent teeth in two weeks.

And to think, this is only child 1, phase 1...we get to do this at least 3 more times!

Songwriter

Ty can add songwriter to the list of things she wants to be when she grows up (fashion designer and makeup artist if you're keeping track...).  She sang a song for us that she had written the other night, but I couldn't really understand what she was saying because she got embarrassed and quiet and giggly.

But then she wrote the words down.  The song could be finished -- it is short and seems to just stop -- but what she has is really good.  She gave this sheet to a man in the praise band at our church, and he is going to put music to it if I can get a recording of Tyler singing it.

In case you can't read the words, they are:

God puts a fire in your heart,
He takes the power away.
He can here (hear) every song you sing
and every word you say.
Tell Him your sins so He can forgive them,
forgive them.
Every time you pray He rejoices...

(I added the punctuation)

Nine Years Old, Where Has the Time Gone?

This adorable little face is Tyler back when she was around four-and-a-half.  Yesterday she turned nine.  NINE.

I am not quite sure how that happened.

It was just yesterday that I was pitching a temper tantrum because the hospital was calling to put me off one more day because they were too full for me to come in for an induction (I was four days past my due date, and I was. not. happy).  And it was just yesterday that this sweet little face made me a mommy for the first time, but somehow she is nine-years-old, and everyone is talking to me about how, next year, she will be double digits.

I have to cry a little just thinking about that.

But, here is some info about Tyler at nine:

-- She weighs about 50 pounds, as do her brother and sister.
-- I am not sure how tall she is -- need to check on that!
-- Her favorite foods are fried shrimp, tacos, hamburgers, spaghetti, and pizza.
-- She hates any foods that are green -- broccoli, green beans, peas, etc.
-- She loves to read (finally, FINALLY!!!), and can go through a Babysitters Club book in a day.
-- Ty loves clothes and jewelry and accessories, and she has decided that she wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up.  If that doesn't pan out, then she wants to be a makeup artist.
-- She likes to make up dances to her favorite songs, and she and Sanders have recently started making up puppet shows.
-- I get really surprised if she brings home a grade below a 95.   In the first grade, I thought that good grades would be something that wouldn't come easily for this kid -- she had trouble focusing in school, and she just generally had a hard time adjusting to the whole school work/homework thing.  Now she rocks it.
-- Ty is caring and loving, and she thinks she can take care of anyone younger than she is.
-- She has to make her first trip to the orthodontist later this month.
-- Tyler thinks she is 25.

There is so much more I could say about this first baby of mine, but I won't go on and on.  She is a blessing to our family, and Brad and I are lucky to have her.

Happy Birthday, Tyler!!