Going Green and Local

Lately I have been on a mission to go green and eat more healthy organic foods. I have been trying out the local farmers markets and buying fresh produce. It is going to take me a long time to get where I want to be with this but we will get there slowly but surely.
The hardest part is going to be getting Jamie to eat the fresh veggies and fruit. I don't know what it is with that kid but he hates stuff that is good for him. I try making it fun. I have tried to just get him to taste it. But he still gags on it and spits it out. I am blaming this on his father. Jim doesn't like many fruits or veggies either. Of course I waited till he was out of the country to try doing most of this. :) He is in for a big surprise when he gets home. I was nice and at least told him I was going to do this. For the most part he is on board. Plus his doctor keeps telling him he needs to eat healthier since he is getting older.
We are also going to try to eat more local/organic meats. I just don't trust all the nasty stuff they are feeding and injecting into livestock. I can't help but see a connection to fertility problem, earlier periods, earlier puberty, and super bugs. I tried to stay in the dark about this but I can't any longer. My kids are too important to me. Of course I still drink way to much soda and smoke way to many cigarettes. But I am going to work on those as well.
Plus it is better for our economy to buy local foods. I am tired of supporting big corporations that put all the little guys out of business. Now I am not saying that I will never shop at Walmart, Target or any of the others. But I will try to not go there first. Plus it does make sense to try to help out our friends and neighbors. Now I just need to find out where the locally owned and operated restaurants and such are. We eat out at Mcd's way too often. When my kids have all their latest toys plus duplicates I think it is getting out of hand.
I am trying to be good and eat at home more. This is a challenge with Jim not here though. It is so much harder to cook for just me and the kids than it is to cook for the whole family. Half the time Jamie has no interest in eating what me and cara are eating so I still have to cook him something different or listen to him whine all night.
Oh well we are a work in progress. But we will get there and be healthier for it.
Sorry for those that read my blogs. I tend to ramble. I have never been good at writing papers so I jump around a lot. Of course I do this when I talk to so I guess it is just how my brain is wired. :)

Going to Cali

Jim is deploying for 6 months to Iraq so I am going to go home to cali for 11 days at the beginning of August. Every year it just gets harder to visit there. My mom lives in a one room studio so we can't stay with her and my brother doesn't have any extra room since he will have 2 kids by then. It won't be so hard once the kids get older but right now it is hard for them to share a room since they all are so young and used to sleeping on their own.
So I am going to rent a condo or house. I have been looking at some in Temecula, Corona, lake elsinore and canyon lake. It is going to be expensive but a much better option then renting a hotel. I am just afraid the kids won't get any sleep in a hotel in we all have to share the same room. And getting 2 hotel rooms is just not an option because they are too young to be in their own separate hotel room. Even if it had a connecting door I would still be hesitant because Jamie knows how to lock doors. Plus it would be just as expensive to get 2 rooms as it would be to just rent a condo/house.
Now I just need my mom to go check out some of these neighborhoods to see in the online photos are really what these places look like.
If everything works out as planned. We will arrive in Cali on the 1st of August. go to the beach with my moms family on the 2nd. Then chill out on the 3rd. Go to legoland on the 4th. Chill out on the 5th. go to the San diego Zoo on the 6th. Chill out on the 7th. Go to disney on the 8th. Chill out on the 9th-11th. Then come home. I figure if I give the kids at least one down day inbetween they should be ok. I don't want them too tired to enjoy the different parks. It is going to be a crazy 11 days. But so much fun. :)

Droopy Dog

Well he is gone. This morning Jim took him to the vet and they put him down. He had severely deteriorated in just the 2 weeks since the last time he was there. I know we made the right decision for him. He could barely even breathe last night. The vet said he had fluid in his lungs and wouldn't have lasted too much longer. So it was definitely time.
We still haven't told Jamie. He asked about him this afternoon but it was right before nap time so we put it off. I think we told him he was hiding or something I really can't remember. He hasn't asked about him since. I'm sure he will notice tomorrow then we will have to figure out what to say to him.
I want to tell him that Droopy died and went to heaven. But honestly we haven't even really taught him about god yet. I keep meaning to but I just don't know where to start. I used to be religious but I am not so much anymore. I still believe in God and I try to live my life good and teach my kids good things. But I haven't been to church in too many years to count. I keep saying I am going to start going but then I put it off saying when Cara is just a little bit older.
It really comes down to me being lazy and not wanting to wake up to go. Or force Jim to come with me. He believes in God but has a problem with organized religions.
Ok so this post was about Droopy not religion. I kinda got off track.
I am going to miss him. Its going to be weird not having him follow me all over the place. Or him barking as soon as I get in the door. Or him waiting for me with his tail wagging. He really was a good dog. I should have pet him more. I couldn't stand the smell of him while I was pregnant but it really wasn't his fault. It was just the breed of dog he was.
We are not getting another dog anytime in the near future. But even if we got another dog it would never replace Droopy. He was a good, loyal dog. He will be greatly missed.

Here we go Steelers

So the big game is today. We are all dressed in Steelers clothes (yes even me) and just waiting on the kids to wake up. We are going over to a friend of Jims from his steelers fan club. I'm kinda dreading going mostly because I don't know them and won't know anyone there. But also because they don't have kids and I don't know how my monsters are going to behave. We are taking 2 cars just in case I have to leave early. I really hope I won't have to though.
Well we ended up staying through the whole game. The kids were really good. They were the only kids there and Jamie got tons of attention.
I am glad the steelers won. It was pretty intense there the last few mins. I was in a room full of anxious Steeler fans. It was insane. When they scored the winning touch down the room went crazy. Then everyone just stopped and stared at the screen to see if he had both feet in the end zone before he went down. I was really worried that he landed out of bounds. When it came back that the touchdown was good everyone started celebrating again.
All in all it was a very good game and I am glad I went.

Crazy Animals

All I was supposed to do this afternoon was take the cat into the vet to get his shots. Well Droopy laid on the ground and started howling in pain about 2 hrs before I was due to go. So I called and they said to bring him in too. They think he is in pain from arthritis and gave him some pain meds. Also while she was checking him out she found a large growth on his neck. Where it is at she doesn't feel comfortable to exploratory surgery since it is too close to major arteries. Yeah. So she took some blood work to test his thyroid levels and some stuff to try to figure out what it is. If that doesn't tell her what it is she will have to try to poke it with a needle and see what she can find out there. So yeah my dog is sick again. I am worried that this might be it for him.
Ok now to the Cat. Well he got his shots and we all went home. Then I went to give the dog his pain meds and he wouldn't chew it so I set it on the bathroom counter for Jim to force it down his throat. (This is always a ton of slimy fun) Well Jim came out of the bathroom and asked what I did with the pill. Apparently the Cat ate it while he wasn't looking. So we searched the bathroom to make sure and then I called the vet. She called the med company and had me bring tubby back to the vet. Apparently that med is not approved for use in cats here in the states. They use it in england but he basically took a months worth of pain meds. It is extremely toxic in cats in high doses. So she kept him at the office and induced vomitting. He def ate the pill and she got him to throw at least half maybe 3/4ths of it up. She is going to put him on an IV and give him charcoal to neutalize the rest of it. She plans on keeping him all weekend and monitoring him since the effects could take a few days to show up.
So now both my animals are sick and I feel helpless. I just want to go hide out and cry. Droopy I am sad about but he is 14 yrs old and we knew this day was coming. Tubby on the other hand is only about 5-6 and I will be devastated if anything happens to him. I am really hoping he pulls through this but we don't know yet what if any lasting affects will happen.

Go Blazers

We took Jamie to see the OKC Blazers last night. It was free kids jersey last night and both Jamie and Cara got one. Of course they were one size fits all and are huge on Jamie but hey they were free. He had so much fun you should have just seen his face light up. It was priceless. He had a hard time following the puck sometimes. But even I had that problem. That thing moves pretty fast. :)
Cara was also fascinated by the whole experience. It was way past her bedtime but she did really well. She had fun watching everyone around us and all the bright lights. I should have taken her picture but since I was holding her most of the night I forgot. OOPs bad mommy.

Baby Food

I have been making Cara babyfood this morning. I am so excited and shocked that my kid is actually eating. Jamie never wanted anything to do with babyfood. He wanted breast milk or table food and even then he was very selective as to what he would eat.
Cara ate sweet potatos then wanted some peas and green beans while I was making them. Then she still wanted to breastfeed afterwards. I just can't believe how much she ate. She is doing so good with it and I am so proud of her. But it really has me baffled as to how much I am supposed to be feeding her. She isn't even 6 mos old and she is eating the equivalant of 1 1/2 jars of baby food. Is that too much? Should I feed her till she turns away?