last night.

Last night we made a trip to the emergency room. Justin and I were watching old videos we had taken in years past and Liam began to have a coughing fit and it wasn't stopping. I felt his chest tightening as I tried to calm him, and panic began to seep in.

Justin took him while I called my Dad. He could hear him and told us to take him to the ER. Justin got Maxwell & Evan from their room and into the car while I continued to try and get the coughing to stop with tears stinging my eyes. I consider myself to be a very optimistic person but I was very nervous about his breathing stopping.

The hospital is fairly close to our home so we were there in under 10 minutes, although it seemed to take an eternity.

As Justin dropped us of at the emergency entrance, I swaddled my babe as best I could, and jumped out of the car into the chilly air. The cold seemed to help him out a bit and as I entered the hospital sad, dark memories invaded my mind.

The last time I was in an emergency room like this was just over 7 years ago, this very month. It's actually hard for me to believe it's been that long since Jared's accident. The sad, long faces I looked at were eerily familiar as I clung Liam close.

His coughing had stopped for a moment as I filled out a form, but soon started in again which indicated the receptionist that he needed to be seen straight away.

Soon enough his lungs were cleared and he was deemed fine. He has a pretty severe ear infection which they gave us medicine and a prescription for,and they told us to just watch him, and keep him home to heal.

What a relief.

My very dear friend, Melody whom I love very much offered to pick us up as Justin took Maxwell and Evan back home, since he had just dropped Liam and I off and if in case we needed to stay at the hospital we would cross that bridge when we came to it, and I'm thankful we never did.

Today I'm thankful that Liam is fine...and even more thankful that I have a faithful and unchanging God who is glorious and to be praised no matter what may have happened last night.

Everyday food.

This cold is kicking my behind. UGH.

But I thought with all my lolly-gagging around the house I'd share some favorite recipes as of late.

Martha NEVER ceases to amaze me. I mean the woman does it all, and it's all good too. Granted she has a team of experts helping her, but still. She pretty much rocks. I dig Martha. A couple years ago my Aunt Sue got me a subscription to her Living magazine and with it came a gift subscription to Everyday Food. I absolutely LOVE Everyday Food. Every month (or sometimes every 2) I look forward to getting my precious magazine filled with tasty recipes. I page through, mark the ones I want to make and when I plan out our meals I get most of my recipes from Everyday Food. I'd say I use her magazine for about 60% of my cooking.

You can find ALL of the recipes on her website...www.marthastewart.com but I love getting the magazine which is only $12 a year. You can get a deal if you get Living and Everyday Food as well.
Her website is definitely worth checking out, which I assume most people have unless they have been living with their head buried in sand...but she has TONS of recipes on there, and I have yet to try one I haven't liked. She also has tons of craft and organizing ideas. Like I said, she rocks.
Anyway, here are a few recipes we've enjoyed recently. Click on the recipe title for the link to the recipe.

image:marthastewart.com

Healthy Banana- Blueberry Muffins.
These are a favorite Saturday morning breakfast at our house. They are moist and fluffy. The first time I made them I didn't have wheat germ so I left it out, and they still turned out really good.

image:MarthaStewart.com

Individual Pizzas with Pecorino, Arugula, and Tomatoes

These are great "lighter" pizzas. I've used different cheeses, and I've also used whole wheat crust (I get at Whole Foods) or you can make the whole wheat crust recipe on Martha's site. Either way, this pizza makes a great Sunday afternoon lunch.

image:marthastewart.com

Vegetable Lasagna.

This was so INCREDIBLY easy, and quite tasty.

this week.

I warned you. This post isn't pretty. Or very interesting for that matter.
Things to be covered:
1.sickness.
2.home ownership.
3.fatness.
4. realization

Good times.
1. sickness:
Besides that fact that we've hacked up a lung or two this week, nobody is currently residing at the hospital.
I'm thankful for that.
Poor Liam had a rough night last night. He woke up crying, there was no consoling him as he coughed and cried while enduring a fever of 101. In turn I got little sleep last night as well. I think I have an ear infection. Um...excuse me but I'm too old for ear infections? Maxwell is a little over dramatic about coughing, and Evan has even slowed down a bit, but not enough to put a WHOLE ROLL of toilet paper in the toilet. I mean what is this kids obsession with the toilet? You would think he'd want to potty train, but we have only gotten him to go on it a few times, I don't even want to tell you how many times I have clean up after him when I put him in underwear for the day. GROSS.

2.Home ownership.
Oh yeah, it's a blast.
Don't get me wrong I'm SO grateful to have a house, but here's a list of all that has broken in the past month:
-the dishwasher.
-one of our hot water heaters.
-the garbage disposal.
-the Heating unit (which cost us...gulp, $3500.)
- the refrigerator (ok so turns out it wasn't broken, someone just left the door open overnight)
... not minor things that we don't use EVERYDAY!
It's ridiculous I know. I mean it is a luxury that I have ANY of these things really.
Just frustrating that I may have to sell a kidney to pay for everything.

3. Fatness
My emotions have been all over the place lately. I know Justin is thrilled with it. He has been amazing though. He is a pretty awesome husband.
But really...
Going from 2 to 3 kids has been...exhausting.
It really is astonishing to me.
It's strange. I can hardly remember what I did five minutes ago. In fact, I have NO IDEA what I was doing 5 minutes ago.
In a way it feels like old hat, I know what I'm doing for the most part, this is my third baby, but jeez Louise it's a lot of work.

They say with each pregnancy it gets harder to lose weight after baby.
Whatever.
They also say that you might keep 5-10 lbs of what you were before you were pregnant.
Whatever to that too. Because I certainly do not plan on it.
OK, at the ripe old age of 28 I finally see that I will never be that super cute skinny girl that looks fab. in anything she puts on.
Or be over 5feet 4 inches tall.
I also will most likely NEVER run a marathon...or run in any race for that matter.
It sounds nice. I like concept of running and I'd like to be a runner but I'm not.
I've tried here and there, and for some reason I seem to forget I have the knees of a 90 year old, and running reminds me of a soccer injury from high school.
I had to be CARRIED off the field. CARRIED.
That was embarrassing.
Some girl knocked me off my feet which were planted solid on the ground.
I could not get up...would I ever walk again?
Turns out I was just a wimp...now with permanently damaged knees.
SO running isn't my thing. But I love being outside, and come spring the boys and I will be out. That should help in the exercise department.

Anyway, back to the baby weight loss.
The thing is...
Wasn't I just here?
Didn't I just have a baby and have to lose weight yesterday?
Oh, yeah I did. TWICE.
Well, it wasn't yesterday. I mean my kids are 2 years apart.
I don't know. The weight seemed to come off easier after I had Evan.
With Maxwell I was a certified grade A cow the end of my pregnancy...and I'm pretty sure I as afterwards for awhile too.
Those pictures have been BURNED.
And for any of you out there who may have some pictures of me between June and November of 2004...GET RID OF THEM.
My poor husband has had to listen to me complain on a daily basis, and I always shoot down his endless compliments.
I'm a jerk.

You know what the funny thing is though...
I've realized that I haven't been as diligent about being in the word...and in turn this has effected me.
eh, Hello.
LOW and BEHOLD here is my problem.
God has an AMAZING way of showing me how worldly I am.
My cousin sent me this link.
I cried.
I'm so ridiculous.
I need Christ.
Bottom line...I need him more, to glorify and enjoy him.
We all do.
End of story.

monday.

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

We certainly did not miss church yesterday because we were all sick.
We also are still not sick today.
And little old Evan did not pee all over the playroom floor this weekend because someone(ahem, NOT ME) forgot to put a diaper back on him after I had changed him.
Not me.
Liam most certainly did not have the blowup of a lifetime right after I had gotten him all ready for bed.
Evan most definately did not put 3 die-cast nascar cars down the toliet this morning. I did not put my hand in a toliet to fish them out.
I did not do this over the weekend.
NOPE not me.

4

derby , originally uploaded by olives on a monday.

Here’s the rules . . .

1. Go to the 4th folder where you keep your pictures on your computer.
2. Post the 4th picture in the folder.
3. Explain the photo.
4. Tag 4 fellow bloggers to join in the fun!

This picture was taken the day after the 2007 Kentucky Derby. It was an amazing time. In the picture is me, Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace who lovingly took Justin & I, and Justin's parents to the derby. It was an AMAZING experience.

I tag my mother-in-law, Megan, Melody, and Ashleigh.

Dad...DO NOT scroll down.

nosey 033, originally uploaded by olives on a monday.

Yep. This polish gal got her smeller pierced.

Yeah. I did it.

I took a picture of Target carts.

You dig?

Ganggeang Lay pants

Packages from overseas are just so fun. I mean it's just a boring ol' box, but I just think it's so fun.

This particular one is all the way from Bangkok, Thailand! Some rockin' new fisherman pants for spring.

I LOVE them. Thank you to
NUNU.

table.

When we got married we got this old (and free) table. The table is nicely crafted, it is a nice solid table, but the chairs are less than stellar and lets face it not my style but I have to admit having the arms on them is kinda nice. Anyway, no matter how much I cleaned and scrubbed the table it looked like it was still dirty to me. I resorted to using tablecloths a lot. Still not sure of my feelings about those. ANYWAY... I finally decided after 7 years of owning the table to paint it. I mentioned it awhile back and the consensus was to paint it black.

Here it is before:And after:

... and all it took was a weekend and about $12.

Happy LoVeS day.

I've decided it's time to utilize my mantel more. Mantels are fun!
Mommy's littlest pirate...Captain Heartbreak. HILARIOUS.
Yeah, I know. There are about a KABILLION screen tees out there, I could vomit, but there are some pretty hilarious ones.

Thanks to you Mom for the Valentines package. The boys are in LOVE with the play-doh letters.

Happy Valentines Day y'all!

Target and I...two peas in a pod.

I love Target. It's no secret. So what if the team members recognize me... I love my local Target team. They are a pretty rockin' group of people. I had no plans for Target (or tar-jay as many affectionately call it) today but had to go last minute to exchange a box of size 1 diapers for size 2 since the L-man decided to get all HUGE on me. Originally $180. this chair was on sale for $45. and I got another 30% off because I bought the floor model. So it cost me about $35. It fit very nicely into the home portion of our budget with $ to spare. YAY.Can you tell that Evan LOVES it?

This buffet I got at target.com (about a month ago) for about $38 and it shipped for free.

Woo-hoo for Target clearance!

2 months.

Liamster,

2 months old...and you are in the 95th percentile for everything! Of course you and both of your older brothers have all had HUGE heads. What's up with that? I mean shirts get stuck all the time on all 3 of you guys. Crazy kids. You weigh a whopping 15.45 lbs. I laughed when I saw that number come up on the scale. ..my little chunky monkey. Time to break out the 3-6 month clothes.

You smile ALL the time, it's wonderful...and when you're awake you are always looking around trying to watch your older brothers. It seems you SO badly want to join in on the fun with them. You coo and try to get them to come over and talk to you. They adore you.

You still snort all the time when you get worked up, which isn't often, but it cracks your Daddy and I up! You have been our easiest baby...you have done so well at night from the very start. That makes your Mama so very happy.
So HAPPY.

It has all been somewhat of a whirlwind, these past 2 months. All the visitors, going from 2 to 3 kids, and not only that but 2 to 3 boys. I foresee a lot of wrestling matches between the three of you, but I also hope that the three of you become the best of friends, relying on each other, sticking up for one another, and MOST OF ALL pointing one another to Christ.
I love you little monkey. Praying for you each and every day.

rAnDOM.

In middle school I was at my cousins, my best bud, my main chickita, my com padre (you get the picture) house for a weekend, and as I went to use the facilities upstairs I found a small round basket and inside was what appeared to be someones used Kleenex and much to my DISBELIEF, a perfectly good book thrown away!

It was a PEANUTS comic strip book...you know Charles Shultz....Chuck, Snoopy, the whole gang. I love those guys. I couldn't believe someone would throw such a treasure away!

I took the book downstairs to see why someone would do such a thing.

My Aunt Sue tossed back her head and laughed.

LAUGHED.

She then informed me the basket was in fact not a trash can but rather a basket for ones reading pleasure if one so needed something to do while using the facilities.

DUH.

Here's the thing,

I did the same thing the next time I stayed there.

HOW COULD I FORGET THAT?

So fast forward to today, and guess what I have in one of our bathrooms?

Yep, a PEANUTS comic strip book for your reading pleasure ...and you can bet it is in a basket that could or could not be mistaken for little trash can.

It's all about the good memories folks.

How do you like that for a rANdOm story to start off your Monday?

who let the dogs out?

Saturday morning at our house.

the curious case of the missing glass.

Mr MJOD glass...where are you?
You are gone. Absent. Not present.
MIA.
And I'm wondering what happened to you.
A lot of people have used you in the past two months, but I'm left perplexed.
Did you simply just get up and walk away?
Did someone desire you so much they had to have you for their own?
Or did you shatter into many tiny pieces and the evidence disposed of before I knew about it?
I wonder.
It's not that I mind that much.
Granted, I had 6 of you, but the thing is, if I have a fancy smancy dinner party I can now only invite 5 people.
It's a mystery.