Happy Birthday to me...I guess

Yesterday was my birthday. Chris of course had to work. He left the house around 7:30 am and didn't get home until 10:30 pm. We did go out for lunch on Sunday, after we got haircuts for 5 of the 6 kids. (Baylee will let me put her's in a pony tail, so I haven't had to cut hers yet.) Tyler didn't even complain about the fact that I picked Mexican for lunch...that in itself was a great gift!

We also did cake & ice cream on Sunday. I didn't take any pictures of it, but I do have pictures from when we celebrated Yummy's birthday. Long story short, for Amata's birthday, we had gotten a Brownie/Ice cream pizza for her cake. Tyler ordered it again as his pick a few weeks ago and when we went to eat it, Caleb went and grabbed birthday candles out of the drawer. I asked him who's birthday it was and he said "Yummy." So we lit the candles and sang happy birthday to Yummy. Then Caleb & Amata blew out the candles and we ate.

Yesterday, on my actually birthday, we had daycare kids until about 5:30. Then I had to rush to Shopko and exchange the shin guards that Cameron needs for his game tonight. I made it back with about 10 minutes to spare before my online chat for an ADHD class I'm taking. After my class I ran the truck over to the repair shop to get the window fixed and rode my bicycle back home. I know, you're jealous about how exciting my life is! But I'm officially another year older. And yet I'm still not old enough to be shopping for a "mother of the bride" dress no matter what the lady at Dress Barn thought!

Before and After

We've lived in this house for almost 9 years now, and we have officially pretty much rebuilt the outside of the house. Unfortunately, we haven't been picking away at it that entire time, everything but the windows has been done in the last 18 months. So, we've spent a good chunk of change the last year, but with the economy being what it was, we got some really good deals. The siding alone was cheaper than the estimates we had gotten for it 4 years earlier. Maybe once we finish paying off our home equity line in a few years, we can start working on the inside of the house!

I am too lazy to find the original picture of the house before we replaced the windows, but here is what the house looked like before we did the siding, roof & landscaping.

It looks just fine from a distance, but when you get closer, you see the crumbling concrete patio, the rotten panels in the siding and on the really windy days if you were lucky, you could see some of the shingles blowing off.

The patio was the last thing we did. It rained practically every day when they were trying to put it in, but once they were done and we had grass seed to keep wet...no rain! So after weeks of watering, here is the final product.

I'm not drinking it!

When CJ was initially placed with us, he was on Soy formula. I really didn't know why, I just figured it was working for him, so I continued giving it to him. (And really, there's no point in asking why, because chances are pretty slim chance that the social worker would know why anyway. The parents don't usually write detailed care instructions when their kids get taken away.) When we went to his WIC appointment, I asked if the nurse thought he needed to go to Soy milk, too, instead of whole. She said that typically babies who are on soy formula have outgrown the need for it by the time they turn one, so he would probably be fine with whole milk. And, in order for him to get soy milk through WIC, he would actually need a doctors note.

She did say that we could get lactose free milk with WIC, so if he didn't do well with whole we should try that. At first he seemed to do okay with whole milk, but after a couple of days he started getting a light rash on his chest & his back, so I decided to try out the lactose free milk. (Which, in case you were wondering is twice as much as regular milk...thank goodness for WIC!) Since we made the switch to lactose free the rash has gone away, so I will probably stick with it.

There is just one thing that is bothering me about it, though. I bought the carton about a week ago, and I just happened to notice the expiration date on it. September 10, 2009. Since when does milk last for over a month & a half? And while I admit I don't like milk anyway, unless it's chocolate, there is no way on earth I would drink that milk on September 9th. Is lactose really what makes milk expire so fast?