The DNA Results are IN...

OK, I had to say that. I've always wanted to - ever since a co-worker at my last job used that as the title of the e-mail he sent to our ENTIRE division informing us that he had a paternity test done on his "one night stand" and was now a father! I don't make this stuff up. Again, my time spent at this last job is why I find The Office so hysterically funny and sadly, so realistic!

Anywho, so the first line of DNA results came in (otherwise known as the FISH test) from my amnio done on Monday and it is definitely a BOY and he has perfectly normal 13th, 18th and 21st chromosomes (which means he does NOT have downs or any of the other two scary syndromes that is caused by trisomies of these chromosomes). See Tad, I am paying attention when you are trying to educate me on my "MINOR" in genetics!

In about 8 days we will get the second line of results in (testing for what I'm not sure and I don't think I want to know) I just vaguely remember Tad explaining they have to grow or reproduce the chromosomes or look at the genes, I'm not sure. Again, I'm still working on my genetics degree and Tad didn't have his white board when going over this.

And then in about 3 weeks (hopefully) we will have the results from the Mayo Clinic for the BWS test. This takes the longest because they have to do "a lot of crap" to distinguish my "junk" from the baby's and then look at the methylation - don't even get me started on explaining this! So, we wait and wait and Tad grows impatient because I don't follow along so easily when he going over methylation for the 1,000th time.

Next week I start my progesterone shots that I have to have every week until I'm 36 weeks along. This is to try and ensure the sucker stays in there as long as possible. When getting my second opinion today from my midwife she said "They are a pain in the butt (literally, sorry about the pun) but you NEED them". And that's the update so far...thanks for stoppping by!

Smoothing Over Rough Patches

OK, so my friend Susannah suggested I write a post on this the other day when I told them my plans. I have a gift (Tad calls it manipulation - I like to refer to it as ensuring my kid stays in good standing and recognizing the people that spend every day with her). And for the record, several of my other friends share this same "gift".

Our youngest little one is a firecracker. She is SO funny, ALWAYS smiling, running, loud and happy. Sometimes I think I should have named her Joy, because that is what she is. You can't help but love her and laugh with her (even when she's up to no good). Many of the people in our life feel her "fighting" spirit is God given and it's why she has flourished so well in spite of her medical issues. So, I was a little worried when she was going into a more serene, structured classroom this year without her older sister to "supervise" her. For the first few weeks she was getting accustom to her surroundings - very quiet, very shy and very on task. Then about 3 weeks ago she felt comfortable to be more herself. And so ensued a couple of weeks were we needed to help her find a balance between being herself and following the school rules. For a few days there I could tell her teachers' nerves were wearing a little thin. We worked with them and with our baby girl and I think this balance has been achieved and maintained (at least since the middle of last week).

To help make sure no lasting damage was done, I decided to put "operation smooth things" over into action. Yesterday I went to the dollar section at Target and picked up a tube of the Pumpkin Spice body scrub and a Ghiradelli Chocolate Square for each of the teachers. I then included a note that said "Thanks for helping me through my rough patch at school, I hope my new behavior (and this scrub & chocolate) will help smooth things over!". They LOVED it! I know it's corny and some might think stupid. Yes, I know that this was not necessary to my child's enrollment at the school, however it was an inexpensive but much appreciated gift that let those teachers know we appreciate their patience. I think too often people don't take time to do this. It's not that we are trying to "buy" our way past our children's bad behavior - that we take very seriously at our house and we addressed with our child. But, it is hard on the teachers (even when they are trained and paid to deal with it) and it's nice to let them know you recognize that.

One of my friends a few years ago had a rough patch with her child at school. She made a little "see no evil, hear no evil" scrapbook for the teachers. It had a page that said "I'm sorry I didn't listen, I promise to do better" (and a picture of her child holding her hand to her ear), a page with "I'm sorry I didn't pay attention, I promise to do better" (with a picture of her child's hands over her eyes), and a page for "I'm sorry I didn't do my best yesterday, I promise to do better" (with a picture of her child looking sad). The teachers LOVED it. It showed them that the parent took their issues seriously, discussed it with her child and most of all it made them laugh!! What ideas or "operation smooth things over" have you used?

Short Order Cook

I don't know what I've started but the girls are now becoming "house hermits" too! I gave them the choice the past two nights of going to Zaxby's or eating whatever I could scrounge up from the fridge & pantry and without any hesitation they screamed 'STAY AT HOME". So, tonight I just happened to have found this recipe for Waffle House waffles and so we whipped them up with eggs, bacon and oranges. They really liked them. They don't taste exactly like Waffle House but they are the closest I have ever made. (It may be that they don't taste exactly the same because we use 100% maple syrup here and they don't at Waffle House.)

Waffle House Waffles
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar - Yeah, no wonder they are so good!
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons shortening
1/2 cup half & half
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1. Combine flour, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Stir to combine.
2. Lightly beat the egg in another medium bowl. Add the sugar,butter, and shortening and mix well with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the half & half, milk, buttermilk and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Add the dry flour mixture to the wet mixture while beating. Mix until smooth.
4. Cover and chill at LEAST 15-20 minutes. Waffle House actually refrigerates overnight!
5. Rub a light coating of vegetable oil on a waffle iron. Preheat the waffle iron. Leave the batter out of the refrigerator to warm up a bit as your waffle iron is preheating.

First By-Weekend of 2008

This was a hectic weekend. Tad was gone on a family golf tournament so it was just me and the girls. Sarah-Grace had a swim meet on Friday night. She did good, but I could tell she wasn't herself. I don't know if it was that Tad wasn't there or if she was overwhelmed by the disorder of this swim meet compared to her other team. Either way she did well. She didn't break her personal best record for the backstroke (that she set in the county meet), but she swam it faster than she did in the regular season. Most importantly she dropped exactly SEVEN seconds off her freestyle which is pretty amazing!! She came in second in all of her heats. I think it's good she gets used to this now because this summer she is moving up to the 7 and 8 year old group and so it's going to be a LOT tougher.

The girls spent the night with Jeannie & Kristi on Friday so I could participate in Compassion in Action with my church on Saturday morning. It was awesome! My group did a food drive for the Lawrenceville Co-op and we collected over 1,000 items!! It was really wonderful getting to know more people in my church AND in my neighborhood. If anyone wants to help with the Lawrenceville Co-op they will need help sorting the 15,000 or so items they received over the weekend this Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. So, you can find me there at least one of those days this week.

The girls had 2 birthday parties yesterday. However I didn't realize until the afternoon (once I finished up Compassion in Action) that one of them was in Lilburn and there was NO way I could get there and get back in time for the other birthday party. So we decided to come home and rest (which was a good idea because I was exhausted) and then Grace went to the party and I took Charlotte to the mall.

Today we went to church and I took the girls to the Elisha Winn fair which they loved. We walked the grounds spoke to a few historical societies, shopped and then I let them eat a hot dog and we all split a funnel cake. Here is their picture. The girls also go to meet Ms. Dacula and have their picture taken with her crown. I will try and upload thise pictures soon!

Speechless

That is what I am these days. Yep, so I am STILL sick. I have had this "cold" now for two weeks, I have no voice and an ear ache. The girls are doing well and so is Tad. Sarah-Grace has her first swim meet this weekend and she is so excited! My sister finally has a job and so she's ecstatic. We are very proud of her because after her first offer from this company (which refused to pay the recruiter that worked so hard to get my sister this interview) she turned it down saying that she felt that she needed to do the right thing and trust God - even though she desperately needed this job. Today at 4pm the company called her back and said they wanted someone with her integrity and if paying the recruiter is what it took to get my sister to accept the job than that is what they would do. Not only does she have a new job but she has a renewed faith in herself and God.

I know I complain a lot lately (and I'm sorry for that) so I feel I need to write about somethings I am thankful for - so here's my list:

• I'm thankful for my little girls who I still find I am falling in love with everyday.
• I'm thankful for my friends who make me oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with sucranat, spelt flour and buckwheat and they are delicious!
• I'm excited that I get to learn what sucranat and spelt flour are and how to use them.
• I'm thankful for Wednesday nights when I get to have 4 hours of interrupted conversations, interrupted TV and amazing meals like wheat biscuits with black bean patties, fried eggs, tostadas and incredible tomatilla salsa or chicken scallopini with wheat noodles that I literally dreamed about for days.
• I'm thankful I learned what thrush is before I ever had a chance to contract it and that it can cause a very necessary body part to fall off if you are nursing your baby!!
• I'm thankful I have neighbors who care about our community and who I get to volunteer with this weekend!
• I'm thankful for this blueberry muffin recipe because after serious judging last night it has the stamp of approval for being one of the BEST blueberry muffin recipes EVER. Seriously, Tad doesn't like blueberry muffins, never has, but after hearing his family rave over these he got sick of it and finally tried one. Needless to say he now not only eats them but likes them!

Best Blueberry Muffins (adapted from Ina Garten's recipe)

1 1/2 sticks butter (room temperature)

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs (room temperature)

1 cup sour cream (room temperature)

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp PURE vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 can Blueberries drained and rinsed (you can use fresh but the canned are so much softer and my kids will eat them this way)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins. Sift dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda) together and set aside. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated into butter and sugar. Then add sour cream, milk and vanilla. Scrape down the bowl and slowly add the sifted dry ingredients to the batter. Gently fold blueberries into the batter. Using an ice cream scoop (so the muffins are all uniform size) scoop the batter into the lined muffin tins. Bake for 20-25 minutes - until cake tester or toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean. Try not to eat more than one - just try!!