Amber Waves of Grain

I bought my car, Flash , back in 2000 when he was brand-spankin' new. He was a Plymouth Neon and I splurged with the sunroof and 6 disc CD player because I was hip and with it like that . I was fresh out of college with my first 'real' job. I traded in my old Dodge Shadow named Cooter. Yes, all of my cars are named after characters from the Dukes of Hazzard (Cooter was the mechanic and Flash was the sheriff's dog ). Needless to say, I was a little sad to see Nathan's photo of Flash tonight. Unless a miracle happens, we're pretty sure this was his last trip. If Flash could write this blog post, he'd tell you all sorts of stories. He'd tell you stories of my first dates with Nathan . He'd tell you about two trips to St. Louis for weddings. He'd tell you about our honeymoon . He'd tell you about Charleston, South Carolina and that a horse there had the same name as him. He'd tell you about our spontaneous trips to Gatlinburg a...

I hop. You hop. We all hop for IHOP! Not many people get choked up in IHOP. But, I sure did. This was a very important milestone for us today . You might be thinking that it's because they are offering new LEMON pancakes with a mixed berry topping. If you know how I feel about lemon, then you know the significance of this. They were almost life-changing . However, it is not why I got choked up. I was choked up because this was the first time our family has ever eaten at a restaurant (besides McDonalds!) where I did not have to pack a separate meal for Keegan ! We are making great progress with Keegan's eating disorder and he very recently started eating waffles and/or pancakes with syrup on top!! This is huge (and will hopefully make him grow huge!). For the first time ever, he was able to order something from the kid's menu. I was beyond thrilled. It was a turning point for us and showed me some light at the end of this tunnel with his food issues. He orde...

Kennedy is officially a YEAR AND A HALF today! Wow, where does the time go?! She has been playing a lot of pretend lately which is so fun to watch. My favorite is when she takes care of her baby doll. She feeds her, rocks her, hugs & kisses her. She is ALWAYS on the run. She's close to Keegan, who he is constantly in her face. She's a daddy's girl. Whenever she hears her daddy approaching, she yells, "DA-DA!" over and over and smiles the biggest smiles. She's adventurous and fearless whether she's climbing furniture or playing in the pool. She hasn't had many words yet.... up until about a week ago. Suddenly, she is exploding with lots of words all at once including ball, baby, bye-bye, and cat. She also understands verbal instructions better all the time. Very fun. She officially got weighed at the doctor's office. She's 20 lbs, 8oz and 31 3/4" in length. Happy half birthday to my precious Kennedy!!! We love you!

I bought a comfy little summer dress from Old Navy. It's made of t-shirt material and even has pockets. Priced right at $19.50. I can even wear my giant owl necklace with it. You can't go wrong. Cute, right? Until...... Nathan mentioned one little thing. The McDonald's Hamburgular . Would you like fries with that? Enough said.

That's right.... it's time to vote for this year's STATE FAIR SIGNATURE FOOD . Thanks to Jen who always sends me the link! As you may recall, this year's fair theme is Year of the Pigs ( link ). Basically, there are 5 new foods (all pig/pork related) that we can vote on. All foods will be available, but the WINNING food will get the best booth spot and all the marketing . Really, this is important stuff. Lives could change here, people. Here are the new foods along with their descriptions (drum roll, please).... 1) Country Fried Bacon Thick-cut bacon with a crispy, country-fried breading -- either regular or spicy -- served with a side of country gravy for dipping. 2) Garbage Burger Ground pork burger topped with pulled pork seasoned with Shoup's Country Foods barbecue sauce. 3) Pig in a Pancake Sausage link on a stick dipped in batter, deep fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with warm syrup. 4) Delia's Pulled Pork Taco Slow-ro...

In my younger life, I enjoyed a good concert now and then. Then I had kids . Now my concert days have turned into this: Look closely. I'm pretty sure that's a mosh pit forming in the front near the stage: I'm in the green, singing (because sadly, I knew all the words) and even doing the hand motions. Clearly I'm a groupie. Doesn't my 'triangle' look good though? I really know my shapes. That's right, I'm at a mini-concert for Steve Songs, a guy on PBS who sings kids songs about shapes or kindness ( link ). Wild, I'm telling you. We were at a local event this weekend put on by PBS (TV channel). There were lots of booths where you could pick up samples and cheap trinkets. There were also lines where kids could wait to meet their favorite PBS characters like Elmo or Curious George. Lucky for us, Keegan is still scared of people in costumes and didn't want to get very close. So, we didn't have to wait in the long, slow lines dur...

Today is Keegan's half birthday. In the world of kids, half birthdays matter . Nobody cares that I am 32 and a half, but all kids care that they are a HALF year older. So, here's Keegan's 4 1/2 year update!! Keegan is.... -Super active -Creative -Musical.... and taking piano lessons for 5 months now -Done with his 1st year of preschool! He goes to Pre-K next year at a new school. -Incapable of keeping his hands to himself when playing with Kennedy. Really, completely incapable. -Good at remembering things. He's detail-oriented and remembers the smallest details of things that took place a really long time ago. -Funny. He loves to make people laugh and even comes up with his own jokes. -A puzzle machine. He does 125 piece puzzles by himself or with very little help. -Quick to say he's sorry. He has a sweet little heart and is always quick to apologize. -In love with all things dragons, monsters, robots, army guys, Batman, Knights, Scooby Doo, and Tom &...

Thanks to everyone who has been asking about Keegan's food issues and eating disorder. The last time I posted, he was seeing a therapist who had us feeding him meals every 2 hours and taking all pressure off. We saw some initial progress but then he learned how to take advantage of the system. He knew that he didn't have to eat much at any given meal because he'd be given another meal in a short time. So, he could just eat the dessert each meal if he wanted! Since then, the therapist is no longer working with us. We can't complain since we weren't paying her, but she basically fell of the face of the earth. However, we were ready for the 'next step' of her program and now we'll never know what that was. Keegan is in my hands now, poor thing. I'm not as ' soft ' as the therapist. I'm more of a tough-love kind of mom. I'm reading a book called Poor Eaters: Helping Children Who Refuse To Eat. The author definitely hits th...