Vlog?

Ok, I'm getting more & more reeled into this idea of doing a vlog.  So I'm going to launch into it.  We'll see how well it goes & if I stick with it.  Remember Flashback Fridays?  And PC?  Yep, those fizzled out.  Although to be fair I *THINK* about doing them.  I just don't get them done.

If you don't know what a vlog is, cause I'm sure you can't find a definition via Mr. Webster,  it is a video that I post to my blog about a specific topic.  Instead of writing my post about something, I make a video.  I like this idea because me talking in never a problem.  And me talking instead of trying to write it all out & convey it via words is sometimes/often much easier & quicker.  I promise to not be all vain about being on video.  I won't be getting all dressed up, wearing make up, sitting in my immaculately clean house.  Ok, that thought just made ME laugh out loud.  I don't do that on any other day, so sorry, my dear friend, I won't get it done for you either.

Anyway....to start off this idea, I need all of you, my fellow stalkers followers to ask me a question.  Any question.  More than one if you want.  As long as it is appropriate I will answer it in my vlog.  Get creative.  Get to know me.  I'm NOT shy or bashfully.  As my friend, Liz, recently said....."yeah, Carmen...you are OUT THERE all right" : )  I'll give it a few days before I make my video.  You can comment on here or facebook, email or text me.

New Addition to the Family

I'd like to introduce Jaxsen Josef to the family.  NOT household....people, tame them comments ; )  Jaxsen was born to my "little" sister Blanca & her husband Jeremy.  Blanca was  couple days overdue.  Her water broke so she went to the hospital around 5 p.m. and gave birth at 7:57 p.m.  I can now officially hate her in the giving birth area.  Lucky duck.  Anyway, little peanut is the focus here.  Isn't he a cutie?!?!

 I was not able to get over & visit them for a few days.  I've still got my touch....happy to use it on OTHER PEOPLE'S babies : )

 No shortage of cousins to hold baby Jaxsen.  Carmen was quite smitten with him.  She was all ready to just bundle him up & make him her own.  I asked her if she wanted us to take him home.  She said "YES!"  Then we asked her if she wanted mommy to have another baby and she didn't think twice before exclaiming "NO!"  (good girl Carmen, we'll just keep you the baby in this household!)  She held him a fair amount and if you got close enough to try & take him away she'd protest.  I think she really thought that was her new baby toy.

 They all wanted to hold him.  We are all baby lovers who just can't resist them.

Jaxsen is the 13th grandchild born to the Luna side of the family.  I don't think he's the last, not from that sister at least.  Which is good.  We need plenty more babies to snuggle & love on. 

Pickle Pizza

Your first reaction is either of disgust or intrigue when I talk about my pickle pizza.  This fine delicacy was introduced to me as a child from my mother.  She learned of it from a pizza place in Ankeny, IA where she went to college.  For me, you have to understand, these two foods alone are at the top of my I-can-eat-every-day-and-never-get-sick-of-list.

So I have continue the tradition of this food to my children.  One time when I made it for supper Angel had a friend over and she ate some.  Apparently she went home & it's all she could talk about was my pickle pizza.  So her mom was curious about this "totally awesome pizza" and talk began to spread amongst our friends about it.  So I decided to have some friends over and treat them to my special fanfare of pizza.

So many people have inquired about this favorite of mine.  Everyone makes it sound like there is some great secret to it's awesomeness.  I like that about it.  I like that I feel like I have the next culinary break through in this nation and my great & awesome secret will make me millions of dollars (which, of course, I would share with all of you my great & faithful blog readers).  But, really....it's just pickles on a pizza.  I know when you put it that way it sounds so "simple"  You make your dough (you can buy a box mix or make it from scratch), add your sauce, some pickles (like hamburger dill chips, I'm partial to Vlasic), top with cheese (mozzarella & a hint of cheddar) and bake as usual.

Here below, we have the lovely Carmen, mom of six, entrepreneur & pioneer of the pickle pizza era, modeling our famed delicacy  : )

 This ladies & gentlemen is the famed blogger & personal friend to Carmen, Stephanie B**** (last name with held for privacy & paparazzi reasons).  Stephanie (whom rocks by the way) got a first (very CLEAN) hand experience of helping roll out this fresh homemade pizza dough.  What a trooper & helper she was.

 I failed to get more pictures of us making up the pizzas.  We had to make enough to feed the 6 moms & 18 kids of all ages that were hanging out at my house.  Everyone pitched it & we had fun visiting with each other in the process.  Here we are with the finished product.

We all had a great time.  Sure, the pizza was great .  However, having such great friends to spend the day with & share my special pickle pizza with was even better.  : )

Spring Break

This week is spring break for my kids in school.  We don't usually ever go anywhere.  We just stick close to home and enjoy a change from the usual schedule.  It doesn't mean we are not busy.  Haha, when are we ever not busy?!?!  I made several appointments for the kids (3 dental, 1 hair) and let the kids go spend an extra amount of time with people/places they don't normally get to see.  Mandy is spending the week over in Iowa with my parents.  Brianna is going out to a friend's farm for 2 days.  Angel is going to a youth conference in St. Louis.

This is a little glimpse of what our usual schedule looks like: 5 a.m. (I'm up & running most days), 6 a.m. (at  the Y & often teaching classes), 7 a.m.(heading home from Y), 7:30 a.m.(taking first set of kids to school), 8:30 a.m. (taking second set of kids to school), 12:30 p.m. (waiting for bus to pick up Andrew) 3 p.m. (kids getting out of school, various pick ups).  4 p.m. (waiting for bus to drop off Andrew).  The evening...well, that just depends on the day, but we don't have any completely free night.  So you get the idea.  To run the zoo as tightly as we can, scheduling is the key!

Without all of that restriction we are much more carefree with playing outside & getting things done.

So yesterday, it was the nice warm & beautiful day outside.  I happened to be checking my facebook (shocking, I know) and saw a friend post about a free princess tent she was giving away.  I love....no wait....I mean....LOVE free stuff!  So she dropped off it off right away and wow, were we blown away.  It was much bigger than I anticipated.  In fact, I can completely stand up and my head touches the top, but doesn't lift it off the ground.  (no snickering or short jokes please).

I set the girls up with a tea party right away.  Carmen is in total princess heaven right now.  I knew she'd love it!  A special thank you to Cece for giving us this special tent!!

The boys wanted to play too, but wouldn't be caught having a tea party. So I told them to be the castle guards.  They had fun protecting their sisters and taking out snipers along the way.

 They eventually left the castle & took their gun/snipper play into the front yard.  Give these boys a gun and they will have non stop hours of fun!

We are only half way through our week.  Today Brianna gets her first perm and tonight is the Awana skating party.  On friday I head back over to Iowa.  My sister Blanca is having her baby and the boy I babysat for many years is getting married.  The weather is getting cooler as the week goes on, but it's still going to be a great spring break!!

ER visit #2

AKA: a post about my son's poop & gas problems.  Don't say you weren't warned!

Last night around 1:45 a.m. Andrew came down to my bed to wake me up & inform me that John did not feel good.  I was out of it, I mean, dead asleep.  I gave a wave of my hand & "ya ya".  Andrew woke me again, this time more urgent.  So I headed upstairs with bucket in hand (I thought he meant THAT kind of sick) to figure out what was going on. 

What I found was John in utter pain, screaming & crying.  The pain seemed to be specifically local on his mid/lower left side.  I got him downstairs before he woke up anyone else.  He was slow to move & hollering in pain with each movement.  I had him lay in my bed.  Ok, bad mommy moment....I was so tired, I sort of just shrugged it off.  I mean, come on boy...get over it!!  It became apparent though that this was not just a short bout of drama or whatever.  No matter how much I tried to settle him down (and he would for about 30 seconds at a time) he would just start screaming in pain again.

I got on my ipod to look up webmd because the first thought I had was his appendix.  He was mostly complaining on the pain being on the left side.  You appendix is on your right side.  I have heard of a rare chance of it being on your left side, but I knew that was quite a stretch.  So what do you do at 2 a.m. when your son won't stop screaming in pain.

I packed up & got ready to be there for awhile (let's see...phone, check - ipod, check - book to read, check - post on facebook, check) and we took off at 2:45 a.m.  On the way there John got really quiet & goes "oh, wait, I think it's gone away".  I sat there, seriously thinking about going home, but then he doubled over again & started to scream.  I knew that no matter how minor or serious this was (or wasn't) I had to get it checked out.  It's one of those, you just never know situations.  I could blow it off and then regret it later when he was being rushed in on true emergency status.  Or I could go in & it turned out to be something minor.  Guess, you'll have to continue to listen to me ramble to find out : )

Luckily there was no one else waiting in the ER, so we got taken back rather quickly.  They did the basics to get him screened in.  The first question the Dr. asked was "when was the last time he pooped".  I had already asked John that question.  He was pretty sure that his poop status was fairly recent.  Dr. listened and confirmed that at least his bowels were very active & moving.  He ordered an xray and that showed the real culprit.

John had 3 large (like the size of my fist) pockets of gas in his intestines.  You could see it clearly on the xray right on his left side.  Which, knowing that I suddenly completely understood my son's situation.  I've dealt with that a time or two before.  And, yeah, you feel like your insides are being ripped out.  To put it in perspective for me....it was worse than giving labor.  Seriously!

So once again I feel a little sheepish for the big hoopla, just to find out that he just needed to get some gas out (usually NEVER a problem in this household) and maybe poop a little more.  What else can you do?  Better safe than sorry, right.  And, hey, it gives us some memories and blogging material.  It's what goes on at our zoo.  It's what we call life : )

Couldn't resist a few pictures!  John getting his xray:

 He wasn't amused at my picture taking at 3:30 a.m.

My kids are so smart!

Brianna & John were awarded for their ISAT scores from last year.  The school makes a big deal about kids who meet or exceed the standards for these test.  John exceeded the standard in math & reading.  (They did not test in science last year).  Brianna met the standard in science & exceeded in math and reading.

I give all the smartness credit to Jim.  They sure didn't get their smarts from me.  Now their, music ability - me, a hundred million percent.  Their running ability - me (ok, Jim gets some credit there too, but mostly me).  Their unbelievable good looks - come on now, is that a no brainer, or what.  Ok, I'm kidding with the last one. We get 50/50 for that one.  I get credit for a lot of good things that m kids naturally inherited from me.  Brains/smartness is just not one of them.  I'm totally ok with that!!  Really, they can enjoy all the math & science knowledge out there.

Good job, Brianna & John.  Keep up the good work in school!

AWANA games

A few weeks ago Brianna & John participated in the AWANA games along with other kids from our church.

The team placed 1st.  Although, I'll be honest, there were only 2 teams.  Winning doesn't matter as much to these kids.  They just love to go out & have fun!  We didn't win all of our matches.  We lost some & the kids were very gracious about accepting it.  The other church/team put in a very good effort.

Here is a pictures of our church team:

Here is Brianna & John: 

I took plenty of video from the games.  Even though we were 1 team, most of the events were boys vs. boys & girls vs. girls.