SPT

This weeks SPT Question is:

what do you crave when it's cooler? what is your comfort food? what does it do for you? will you share the recipe (or at least, the name of the place where you get it?)

So my answer is soup. Just about any kind. But especially when it is cold and rainy like yesterday. Soup just hits the spot. We had two couples over last night that are great friends of ours. I tried a new recipe and with a little help from one of the husbands who is a chef by trade, it turned out great. Here is my self portrait after everyone had left.




If anyone would like the recipe it is on my recipe blog. http://www.scrumptiousmorsels.blogspot.com/. Anyone that wants to can join. Just send me an email saying that you are interested. I will add you as an author and you can post recipes along with the rest of us. The email to send it to is scrumptiousmorsels@gmail.com!

The Boys Party... Finally It's here!

Well the day is finally here. The boys party was a big success I thought. We had everything decorated and for the most part everyone was in costume. We had some very creative ones. One of my favorites was a friend of mines hubby. A black eyed P. Very funny. Colored his one eye black and had a big P on his chest. Anyways we had the pinata and cake. A game but not really the ones that I planned because I accidentally left the stuff at home.. Go figure. Anyways I think that everyone had a great time. Some of the funnier moments of the party.. Let's see here it goes.

1.When my mom first got there, my niece Katie walked up to me and said. "Meghan, your mom really scares me!" (My mom was a witch)

2. My other niece Haley walks up to George and says "You smell like a Monkey"!

3. Oliver doing his Pee Wee Herman dance and laugh. People are still talking about that.

4. My hubby with the pinata on his head. I am sure you will see the picture.

5. My mom on her broom! (also see pictures)

Thanks so much to everyone who came. Hopefully everyone had a good time. I am sorry I did not get everyone in the slide show. We have a lot of pictures.. And I am tired. I will post more later. But we are grateful for such good friends and family that helped us to have such a wonderful day and the boys love you all... Just like us!

My Two Little Piggies!

Well today has been a little stressful. Besides the fact that the boys party is tomorrow, I was getting some things ready to go for tomorrow. Well as I was doing this an unusual aroma wafted out into the living room. I went back to the boys room to check it out. OH yes there was the stench. My two boys were rolling around in a diaper disaster. There was extremely runny poop all over the floor, the dresser, the toys. I through out alot, but cleaned alot also. I just do not understand how it happened. I had just checked on them about 2 minutes before that. But when I walked in the room Cullan and Kael were both rolling around with each other. I was so sick. The smell was awful. Anyways I got them both in the tub. Hopefully that will not happen again for a very long time.

WHAT DID I DO TODAY?

Do any of you have days where you run and run and run and still feel as if you got nothing important accomplished. My house is still a mess. My kids both just have t-shirts on with their diapers. I made a late night run to Wal-mart, trying to get last minute things in place for the party. Oh well. I have this poem in a special place and I read it on days like this. It always makes me smile, even if I did not get everything on my list done. Hopefully you moms will enjoy this too. =)

WHAT DID I DO TODAY?

TODAY I LEFT SOME DISHES DIRTY.

THE BED GOT MADE AROUND 3:30.

THE DIAPERS SOAKED A LITTLE LONGER.

THE ODOR GREW A LITTLE STRONGER.

THE CRUMBS I SPILLED THE DAY BEFORE,

ARE STARING AT ME FROM THE FLOOR.

THE FINGERPRINTS THERE ON THE WALL,

WILL LIKELY BE THERE STILL NEXT FALL.

THE DIRTY STREAKS ON THOSE WINDOWPANES,

WILL STILL BE THERE NEXT TIME IT RAINS.

SHAME ON YOU, YOU SIT AND SAY,

JUST WHAT DID YOU DO TODAY?

I HELD A BABY TILL HE SLEPT,

I HELD A TODDLER WHILE HE WEPT.

I PLAYED A GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK,

I SQUEEZED A TOY SO IT WOULD SQUEAK.

I PULLED A WAGON, SANG A SONG,

TAUGHT A CHILD RIGHT FROM WRONG.

WHAT DID I DO THIS WHOLE DAY THROUGH?

NOT MUCH THAT SHOWS, I GUESS THAT'S TRUE.

UNLESS YOU THINK THAT WHAT I'VE DONE,

MIGHT BE IMPORTANT TO SOMEONE,

WITH DEEP BLUE EYES AND SOFT BLONDE HAIR,

IF THAT IS TRUE... I'VE DONE MY SHARE.

See I am smiling already. This helps me to remember what is important to me.

SPT

SPT QUESTION-how do you feel about the color orange as a fashion statement? as a color in your home? are you picky about the hue? do you own a Halloween shirt that says "boo" spelled out with rhinestones?? are you passionate about the *pumpkin color*??

I do not own any orange clothing except for one orange shirt, however it is in the dirty clothes. I am not real big on it as a color for me to wear, but I do love to have it in my home. I am very picky about the hue. I like the orange to have more red in it than to be that bright orange. No neon orange here. Much more earth tone orange for me. I am passionate about the *pumpkin color*. I just got done painting like 10 pumpkins for my kids party, and due to the fact that my orange shirt is dirty, my self portrait today is my favorite pumpkin that I painted. It is one of my favorite shades of orange, and it expresses how I am feeling this morning.

Married a Scotsman?

Ok so I am Irish and Garran has family from Scotland. It is an ongoing joke we have about which is better. Anyways, the funniest thing happened just now as I was checking my email before I went to bed. Now before I tell this humorous incident, I have to start off by saying that Garran is notorious for talking in his sleep. So anyways from where our computer is, if you lean back in the chair you can see in our bedroom. So I was checking my email, and all of a sudden I hear Garran. I lean back in the chair that I am siting at in front of the computer, and Garran is saying something about me staying up so late and being tired tomorrow. But IT WAS WITH A SCOTTISH ACCENT. I am still laughing. He is funny when he is awake, but hilarious when he is asleep.

PS. I picked the picture with the guy playing bagpipes because Garran plays the bagpipes =)

Boys Birthday Party Update!

Well Garran and I have been working really hard to get everything ready for the boys birthday party. We decided to make a home made pinata instead of buying one. Well maybe we should have. We started making it without a clear plan of what it was going to be. So we put a face on it. Well Garran then painted it red which made it look really scary. Too scary for a kids party. So then I added hair and painted it green to make it look like a witch. Well it looks a little scary still. The picture makes it look shiny but it is not. It is still a work in progress. But I thought I would show you guys at least where we are at from last time. So here is the pinata. (When Garran' s mom saw the pinata, she said "Well it is definitely something you would want to swing a stick at!")

After the pinata, I started working on party favors for the different families that were coming. Their are party bags for the kids but for the different groups or families. I decided to buy medium pumpkins for each family and paint them. They can each pick a pumpkin to take with them when they go home. Some of them turned out really cute. Some just turned out OK. I am sure all you crafty people out there know how that goes. Not everyone can be perfect I guess. Hopefully everyone will think that they are cute though. If not I will take them home with me. I love them!

Then the other party favor that I am working on is take home ghosts. I wrapped tootsie pops in Kleenex, put ghost face on them. They are cute. I put them in this little pumpkin tin that I found at hobby lobby. Everything will be nice and organized hopefully when the day of the party comes. Right now I have everything either in a rubber made or on a bookshelf, hence the pumpkins on the bookshelf. OH well. It is fun. I hope everyone coming has a great time. Next up date will be pictures from the party. Everyone in their costumes. I just can't wait. Super Fun.

The Mom Song Sung to William Tell Overture with Lyrics

This is hilarious you have got to watch it.. I died laughing. Garran's mom emailed it to me. I have to admit I have said half of them and I think my mom said almost all of them to me minus pinao and orthodotinst. Hope you enjoy mom!

Staking my Claim : Part 2

So for those of you that read my previous blog about my neighbors know that we have had some parking issues. Well this is my update. So recently she must have gotten the hint, because she has not been parking in my spot. She parks in the one next to it. However I think she is secretly trying to start a mini parking lot war. She now parks so close to my line that I can barely open the door. VERY ANNOYING! (Picture not actual neighbors car, but just to portray the seriousness of the situation, you understand!) So now what to do, what to do. I thought about really trying to come up with ways to solve the situation. Kill her with kindness. Make cookies for her and go introduce myself so that it won't be awkward anymore when she pulls up and I am glaring at her through my kitchen window. She knows that I can see her, that is why she rolled her eyes when I was parked in the coveted spot as she got out of her car one day. Then jokingly I told Garran that I was going to park right in the middle of the two spots right on the line. See how it feels when someone does a bad job of parking and all you want to do is park in front of your house. But alas I worry that I am all talk. I know it will continue for the rest of the time that we both live here with it going the way it does. Every time we see each other smiling and saying hello. Maybe she does not know that we are feuding.... But everyone in my house does! Oh well any suggestions on how to fix this problem... openly welcome. And just so you are wondering.. I am a perfect parker.. I will back in and out just to make sure that I am in between the yellow lines. I want to be courteous to my fellow parkers. Is it to much to expect the same from others?

Screaming and Laughing... It's all contagious!

Today has been a loud one for us. Cullan and Kael think that it is funny for one of them to scream and then the other one screams in response. Usually Cullan starts this lovely exchange, and then it usually ends with me saying or yelling "Boys.. Stop Yelling". I know real effective yelling at them to stop yelling. Anyways today in the car, Cullan started laughing for no reason. Not just a giggle but a full out, real gut busting laugh. I had no idea what he could be laughing about. We were just driving down the highway coming home from Target. Anyways, as Cullan was dying laughing, Garran and I could not help but giggle. It was just to funny that Cullan was cracking up and we had absolutely no idea about what was so funny. But then out of no where Kael starts cracking up. He is just dying laughing too. We probably all laughed for about 10 minutes.. The only one that knew what he was laughing about was Cullan. Go Figure. Oh well, sometimes it's fun when laughing is contagious.

Giving Blood =)

The other day a young man from our church called and said that for his eagle scout project he was having a blood drive. I thought oh that is great. I give blood on a regular basis when I am not prego or having major surgeries =) So not recently, however since neither applied right now I told him to sign me up. He asked about Garran and I told him that I was not sure but that I would talk to him. Well I guess he took that as a yes, because the next Sunday, Garran said that his name was on the sign up list. What is funny about this is that Garran absolutely hates needles. You would never guess a big strong guy like my hubby hating needles. HE REALLY HATES THEM. So the day finally roles around and Garran is dragging his feet about going but I told him that even if he decides not to he will have to drive me home. So we pack up the fam and head out.
When we get there Garran decides to do it. I knew that he would do the right thing. Anyways, he gets called back first. It just so happened that day they were especially looking for people that had our blood type to do a special test with. For some reason Garrans lady did not ask him if he would like to do it but mine did. So Garran was done with all of his questions much faster than I. He went over and was getting ready to get hooked up (The whole time I mention I can hear him telling the blood lady how much he hates this and that he is only here because of me)! Anyways so the final part of checking me, was checking my iron. You have to be at 12.5 to give. My right hand prick came back at 12.0 so we tried my left and it came back at 10.8. Guess who was not giving blood. Oops. So I stand up with a stack of papers about iron enriched foods that I need to start eating and Garran instantly knows. He gives me this disgusted look and starts shaking his head. He goes "You can't give blood can you" I just smiled and said "No Honey I can't, but I will hold your hand when it is time for the needle." He was grumpy. Saying the usual like you wanted to do this and can't but I still have to. But he was already on the table, no need to leave now. Well of course Garran has great blood. He filled up the bag in like 7 minutes. I told him that I bet he would be the record holder for the day. (He was not impressed) So as he goes to sit up all the color drains from his face. I said honey you do not look to good, would you like some juice or a cookie. Sure he would, so I went and got it. He comes and sits at the table for a few minutes while I go and get the kids from the nursery. By the time I had them packed up he had come and found me and said that he was ready to go home. I thought that it was pretty quick, but I thought well he knows how he feels. So we get in the car and get about 1/3 of the way home, when he starts kind of groaning and he is sweating. So I ask him if he would like me to pull the car over. He says yes. So I pull into a Doctors office and is on his hands and knees in the grass. I felt so bad for him but at the same time I was laughing. I know I am a horrible wife. I could not help it because he was still grumbling about giving blood. So he stayed out there for a little while. Took care of what he needed to do. Then came and got back in the car. He still had no color and I said I think that we better get you home so that you can get some rest. So we came home and Garran took a nap as well as Kael. Cullan and I ran to the store to get some stuff for lunch, I thought a little something to eat may help Garrans situation. But Garran pretty much spent the rest of the day lying down. Needless to say I think his giving blood days are over for a while. Oh well at least he did it this time. I am sure the young man with the eagle scout project appreciates Garrans effort. All though the following Sunday after giving blood, Garran told the kid (jokingly of course) that he was holding a grudge against him. Next time he better come up with a different service project.

PS. At the urging of my friend I have to add what Garran said to me when he got back into the car. He said "I know you are going to blog about this", I told him well yes I probably would. And secretly I was wishing how I had my camera. Am I a bad wife? Sometimes husbands can be so funny!

CHEF BOY O DEAR!

Well as you can see one night while I was gone, Garran made the kids some dinner. It must have been yummy because this is what Garran showed me when I got home. What a MESS! But he sure is a cute mess.

SPT - MY VERY FIRST TIME!

My friend Rebecca introduced me to this. It looked like so much fun. I rarely post pictures of me on this blog. Usually all of my post are about the kids. So anyways there is another lady named Lelly that started this thing called SPT. Self Portrait Tuesdays. Every Tuesday she gives you a topic and you think about what it means to you and then take a portrait of yourself. So today is my first time, I am so excited. Here is the topic that she gave for this week.

have you *fall*en into autumn yet?

So I thought about this for a while. I love autumn. It is my favorite time of year. I love the leaves changing and the pumpkins. Decorating. The whole nine yards.. Like I said my absolute favorite. However as much as I love it, it is also our busiest time of year. So today it was raining out, kind of typical of this time of year. Cool and Rainy. And so in the middle of of putting away laundry and vacuuming, I decided to take a minute for myself. I *fell* into my couch, propped my feet up and enjoyed the cool breeze of this soggy autumn day. It was relaxing to watch the rain fall, if only for a few minutes.. So here it is my first.. SPT!

For any of you interested in also participating in this fun little idea, you can check out Lelly's blog at http://lellysmusings.blogspot.com/! Have a great Tuesday!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY KAEL-BAEL!

(His actual birthday is today, I just wrote it last night becuase the kids were asleep!)

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY KAEL! WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH! HERE IS OUR TOP TEN LIST OF FAVORITE THINGS THAT YOU DO RIGHT NOW!

1. YOUR FRANKENSTEIN WALK

2. YOUR FUNNY BUT SWEET CACKLE LAUGH

3. YOUR OH SO SLOPPY KISSES

4. LAUGHING AT YOUR OWN NAUGHTINESS!

5. HOW MUCH YOU LOVE YOUR BROTHER AND THE FACT THAT YOU THINK HE IS SO COOL.

6. YOUR WONDERFUL HIP HOP DANCE MOVES..

7. YOUR SUPER TIGHT HUGS (WE LOVE THOSE LITTLE ARMS WRAPPED TIGHT AROUND OUR NECKS)

8. HOW YOU LOVE TO DRENCH THE BATHROOM BY SPLASHING IN THE TUB WITH YOUR BROTHER.... (ENTER LAUGHING AT YOUR OWN NAUGHTINESS)

9. YOUR FEROCIOUS GROWL...

10. THE WAY YOU WAVE AT EVERYTHING LIVING OR NOT!

WE LOVE YOU AND HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT BIRTHDAY.. WE ARE GLAD YOU ARE PART OF OUR GILLESPIE GANG!

Moments that melt my heart!

Even on days when I feel like I am going to pull my hair out little moments like these next two that I am going to tell you about make it all worth it. So, Saturday night I had a thing at church that I had to go to. When I got home and walked through the door Garran said, "Look Boys, Mommy is home" Cullan said Hi, but Kael reached out for me and gave me three big sloppy kisses right on the lips... I love those even though they are messy and gross. I would not trade them for anything. Not to much later it was time for the boys to go to bed and Garran had gone to a friends house for a little while, so I just had to put the boys to bed and relax for a little bit. However as I was putting the boys to bed. I put Kael down first and then I went to put Cullan to bed. I laid him down in his bed and gave him and kiss and told him that I loved him. I went to get up from kneeling next to his bed and he rolled towards me and grabbed my hand. Hey then looked at me and said "MOM MOM" which was his way of telling me to stay a minute. He gestured more than spoke it. Anyways so I sat there for a minute sort of resting my head on his pillow next to him. He then reached over with his little hand and started rubbing my check and gently playing with my hair. I told him what a sweet boy he was being to which he leaned over and gave me a kiss goodnight. Ahh at that moment my heart melted. I need to remember these moments at the not so good moments, when I feel like I am going to pull my hair out. (Even though those are few and far between!)

Get Ready, Get Set, Almost Time to Party!

Well as most of you know both of our sons birthday's are coming up. I have been working like crazy trying to get things ready for their party. It is mostly family.. once we get everyone their it is pretty busy, but each boy got to invite one friend. They will have cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles.... It will be busy. Anyways so I decided it would be fun to have a costume party for their birthdays. You only usually get to wear your costume once, so this year we are going to get to really get some good out of it. Even the adults have to dress up. I am super excited for the party. I think it will be lots of fun. So the reason for this blog. I have been trying to come up with fun ways to decorate that will not be to scary but that will be fun for the kids to be around. So we started last night. In one of my family fun magazines they had paper bag gargoyles. I thought that the kids would think they were funny and cute. Here are a couple pictures of our first attempts. I think that we will put them around the house with some little pumpkins. They are kind of silly but fun. Then we started working on the pinata. Cullan loves pinatas. So we have three layers of paper mache. Eventually it will be some kind of pumpkin with arms and legs. But right now it looks like a paper mache easter egg. I am so excited to see the boys in their outfits. And for that matter, I am excited to see Garran in his costume. He is not telling me what he is going as, so it is going to be a big surprise.... I am going as the tooth fairy. It will be fun..

My Denim Duo!

My boys at the gardens again. Thought you might like these pictures!

Kael's First Kiss......

At my mom's house this week, Kael was playing with Baily their dog. He just loves standing outside her kenel and listening to her bark. They kind of egg her on. Anyways, my mom and I were standing in the kitchen and all of a sudden we look over and Kael is leaning toward the dog kennel with his tounge haning out, obviously mimicing the dog. But just then Baily sticks her tounge through her cage and Kael got a big wet one. My mom and I were dying laughing. But of course I got a picture of it. So here you go.

Rocks can make you really grumpy.. Maybe I should pay more attention =)

So today I had the boys out and about. We went to play at the arboretum again. (I will post pictures later) They boys had fun. They played with the rocks and all sorts of fun things. They really liked being able to just wonder around. Anyways once we left, Kael had fallen asleep. I decided to run to target while both boys were asleep because I can throw them in the stroller and do my shopping in peace. So we got home and both the boys woke up. Kael had been rather grumpy and complaining. I thought that it was probably because he did not sleep as long as Cullan. But then I decided to check his diaper. As I was changing him three little surprises roll out of his diaper. No not what you think. Yep he had somehow managed to get rocks down the back of his overalls and down his diaper. No wonder he was grumpy. So here was a picture of what he found and how happy he was with a clean, non rocky diaper.

We have a DIAGNOSIS!

Well this week had to take a trip to Blank Children's Hospital so that our littlest Kael could see a neurologist. He had been having what was first diagnosed as seizures from about the age of 2 months. They were supposed to go away by the time he was a year old but because they did not and he is two weeks away from his first birthday, we had to see a specialist. I have to say that everyone at Blank Children's Hospital was so wonderful. They were great with Kael. Super friendly and just wonderful and patient. We really had a great experience. So at first we had to have Kael have an EEG. This was a very long experience. Kael had to be very sleep deprived. He had to be kept up two hours later than normal and then had to wake up two hours earlier. Which meant we were up around 4:30. He also could not have anything to eat. Which also made him a little grumpy. (This is obviously not Kael but this is just what it looked liked. He had between 25-30 cords coming from his head. He did so good though. He cried a little but even the nurse commented on how well he did. We were very pleased with him.) Anyways so we had the EEG and then we had to meet with Dr. Narowong. She was very nice and said that his EEG and come back normal. She did diagnosis him with a condition known as shuddering. We did not know what it was either, but here is the definition that she gave us.

Shuddering: Older infants and children can suffer from paroxysmal bouts of shivering during which spontaneous activity decreases and the upper extremities are adducted and flexed at the elbows or, less often, abducted and extended. The head and knees are also frequently flexed. Aside from artifact, there are no EEG abnormalities during the attacks and incidence of epilepsy is no higher in these children than in the general population. Anti epileptic medications do not modify the attacks. Shuddering episodes gradually decreases in frequency and intensity in the first decade of life. Many children have episodes of shuddering come from children who have episodes of shuddering come from families in which many members have an essential tremor, and the two disorders may be related.

So now we are just moving on. We are glad that it is not more serious and that Kael is expected to live a very normal life. This is no painful and it does not cause any long term pain or problem. We are happy to have our sweet little boy happy and healthy.