Foody Friday- Salmon

I really like Salmon Roulande. There's a kind I get from the freezer section in the grocery store and it's not too fishy. They sell it in Florentine style and with shrimp. We had the kind with shrimp tonight accompanied by green beans and potato wedges seasoned with parmesan, olive oil, and rosemary. It was a nice, light dinner but flavorful. The girl only ate a few bites which is tragic because it was just scrumptious! I wish I would have remembered to box up her left overs because it would have been a great lunch or snack tomorrow but it's been sitting out cold on the table for a few hours already =(

A Week...

Wow, It's been a whole week since I've blogged? I didn't even do my Wordless Wednesday. Shame on me. What have we been up to? Festivals and yard work. Last Saturday the kiddo and I went to the Cat Fest at Denver Dumb Friends League, then Sunday was the Colorado Irish Festival. All this week we've been weeding in the front yard, trimming the dying branches off the trees, oh and getting sick! Some sort of cold + allergy type thing for the girl and I. Thankfully it seems to be going away I hope. Add all this up and you get one tired carakitty.

Did I mention the digital camera that was in the goody bag from the Cat Fest? Still trying to figure out what to videoblog about with that. The thing is still unopened in the box and I'm debating if it's worth it to even open the thing. IF our 'real' video camera can do a direct stream thing I might go with that instead. *sigh* such indecisiveness!

Next posting I'll tell about the fun stuff that is wasting all my time on the internet!

TTFN~ ta ta for now!

tired babbling

I'm tired of being tired. I want to know what the clinic found out with my blood draw that was done last week. I've been a tiny bit less tired the past few days though- I've been going to bed almost always one hour earlier than I usually do and have started up with my multi-vit again. Now I think there's mild underlying stress contributing to the exhaustion. Between the house fixing-up, vet bills, and planning for me going back to school it looks like we will have no fun money at all in the near future. I'd 'love' to get a part time job to help out but we don't know if it will be worth it after taxes, and are thinking it would be wise to wait until our girl is settled into the kindergarten routine first. But then if I did get hired somewhere right off the bat I'd probably have to quit after a couple months any way because it would turn into a huge time crunch between M's school, my school, homework, commute times, etc. We sure could use the added money though. I know, these days who DOESN'T want more money? Perhaps there's something out there that I could do from home, on my own time like transcription work or something? It just seems like so many work from home things are MLMs or look sketchy in general. *sigh* and *yawn*

Feeling a bit lost, so to speak

Lately, well for a long time actually, I've been feeling a bit lost on my Spiritual Path. I feel like I'm swimming calmly but don't see a shore line anywhere and It's not too bothersome day to day but once in a while I get this panicky feeling. I have gone to Mass a handful of times over the past year and it bothers me to admit it, but I've always left feeling kind of empty and unfufilled. I know that having my daughter is part of the problem because it's hard for me to concentrate on praying and keeping her with me. I can't focus on my Spiritual side while alone either though!

I want to find a way to feel spiritually alive again. I dont' know how to go about doing this. Some ideas are to: pray a guided Rosary and ask Mary the Mother to guide me, have silent meditation in a candle lit bath, read about Pagan + Wiccan pathways again, ask J to watch M some time so I can go on a private nature walk + talk with God.... I just don't know what to do. Like I said it doesn't usually bother me but when it does kick up it really bugs me for the couple days that it's there. Then it's gone as suddenly as it came on.

Birthday

Today was Miss Marshmallow's 5th birthday and I let her pretty much call the shots with me for the whole day. Daddy was at work. We had a leisurely breakfast. She had Maple Syrup and Brown Sugar Cream of Wheat with bumble bee shaped grahm crackers and a glass of milk. I had Cinnamon Roll oatmeal and coffee with vanilla creamer. She got to laze about in her PJs and watch Disney channel and play with the toy Cars that were on her 4th of July cake. We celebrated on the 4th with our Aunt M, Cousin L + M and she opened her presents from them and J's parents too.

Then I got restless and mentioned going to the park and doing a little shopping. I didn't want to run any errands but we needed a new filter for the bedroom humidifier. We went to the cool dinosaur park about a mile from our house. We brought water bottles and stayed there for an hour or so. Not many kids were there, it was a hot day. Then we went on the quick run for the filter.

Came home, had left over pizza for lunch and I painted her toenails. She picked a deep orchid shade with gold microglitter. She wanted me to match, so I painted my tips with it too. We watched the neighborhood kids race down the hill on their bikes. I suggested that M join them in the bike riding, but she declined. After our nails were dry we went down to the park down the street and around the corner from our house which was completely deserted.

We got bored and came home and M got to watch the Cars movie while we waited for Dada to get home from work and I wrapped her presents from us. When the movie ended she got to open her presents from us, my parents and her Uncle D + Cousin C. Then she got to make art with some of her new supplies while I cooked her special request of fish shaped fish sticks and macaroni and cheese for her dinner. She was already up WAY past her bedtime but after she was in her PJs with teeth brushed I read her the book she got as one of her presents and I don't usually stay by her bedside while she falls asleep but it just felt right tonight.

I rested my head on her matress and my arm was resting on her thigh and bottom. I thought about the early hours and gazed at her in the dim light. She still breaks my heart with her sweet beauty.

This is a copy and paste of the first birth story I wrote when I was first able to get the chance to do so:

Marsha RoseAnne's Birth Tale
Written by: her Momma with help from Daddy
-------------------------------------------------

It was 8:30 am on Monday the 5th July. I had just finished having a morning potty break and was washing my hands at the sink in my night shirt and felt a sudden gush and heard a splash on the floor. I thought that maybe I had lost control of my bladder, but peed an aweful lot in the toilet so I was suspicious of it being my waters breaking. Some dribbled on my leg so I wiped it off and smelled it to see if it smelled like pee and it didn't so I told hubby 'uh, i think my water just broke!' We briefly discussed it, and agreed in the end that it most likely was the water broken and we called the labor and delivery nurse station who told us to come on in, but we didn't have to rush. We then casually collected my hospital stay belongings then headed out to the hospital. We arrived there at around 10:30 am.

Almost immediately I got hooked up to external moniters. I was having mild contractions occasionally but wasn't noticing them when they hit. They did a swabbing to verify the presence of amniotic fluid. I layed around in bed dribbling fluid almost constantly till they came in at around 3 pm when they finally did an exam and told me I was dialated to a 3. Thankfully they also authorised me a light snack. I was HUNGRY! That single granola bar and a bowl of cereal at home was all that I had to eat during the whole labor process. Thankfully I was allowed as much water as I wanted, but during active labor had to have ice chips.

We laid around all day, I was bored and wanted nothing more to get up and walk around but I guess they kept me in bed to try minimise the amount of fluid lost. So Jason stayed by my side and read his book or watched Animal Planet with me.

I requested an epidural when I was at around 5cm dialation. I was still able to work through the contractions with controlled breathing, squeezing Jason's hand, and some mild noise making but knew it was going to get worse and indeed by the time I actually got the epidural at 8cm the pains were putting me in tears and the whole world was disappearing except for the pain. Thankfully I was able to have a little bit of Stadol in my IV when they told me how long it would be for the anesthitist. It was a -crazy- night with lots of unplanned C-Sections. So, the Stadol was kind of nice. It took the edge off a bit so I would have a contraction then doze off in between.

Here is what Jason had to say about it (copied and pasted from the forum for the game we play online) I am 'Murr' in the following... "Marsha RoseAnne Thompson was born on 6 July 2004, at 5:56AM. She weighed 6lbs, 10 oz (right on target for a mid 37th week baby), and was 18.5 inches long.

Mom and Baby are doing fantastic. (For my part, I did not pass out, I did not get woozy, I got commended for a unique but effective coaching system, and I did the first dirty diaper change, as well as the second. Read'em and weep, Grim. *takes the victory lap*)

It was a little bit of a bumpy ride, and thank God for Vacuum suction, as a potential issue for an rather ugly emergency C-Section was mitigated to 2 minutes of very intense Olympic effort pushing (on Murr's part) and pulling (on the Doc's part), and a perfectly healthy baby girl. After clearing out a good 22cc's (!) of fluid (clear and healthy) from baby's lungs (during which she was crying, just not strongly), we heard about the angriest little wail that did a dad proud. She was a 9 on the APGAR scale for both readings (out of 10). Naturally, she is the most beautiful thing on the face of the planet, bar none. *nods*

Murr was a total champ. She made it to 5 cm dialation with full effacement without feeling *anything,* even with some of her contractions going off the chart on the TOCO. And once things started to get rough, she only got her epidural 2.5 hours after she requested it (there was an issue in another surgery that required the only anethesiologist on duty)... at 9.5 cm dialation. Total champ, she busted through what appears to have been the only natural delivery among 9 births that day, and stayed smiling even through some really hairy parts.

I am home now, for the evening. It was getting close to the point where they were going to kick me out of the ward anyways, as its an old Air Force hospital with doubled up post-partum rooms, meaning Dad's don't get to spend the night. That changes in October we hear, which I think they only told us to piss us off. I mean really, why tell us that?

Mom and baby are well cared for until I am allowed to return. And 36 hours later, I finally get to take a shower and crash, I've been riding a caffeine wave the entire time... so the break isn't entirely unwelcome. Although I'm trying to hang in there until a "normal" bedtime. *smirks* I know, foolish, given who is soon coming home and her dictating who sleeps when.

And on that note, if things continue as swimmingly as they are, we expect the trip home on Thursday morning."

And that is what I have to tell of Marsha's birth so far. Sorry I lagged so hard on getting this all recorded! Oh well, 3 weeks late is better than never =)

Rock On In The Great Gig In The Sky

Rock On In The Great Gig In The Sky
Originally uploaded by caramews

brotherlyluv

brotherlyluv
Originally uploaded by caramews