Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado 2010

This is Michael feeding a giraffe a "biscuit" ... more like a graham cracker/Triscuit mixture ... you get 3 for a dollar. I dropped a bunch of dollars there. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs is so awesomely cool.  And if I may put in a plug for homeschooling, the place wasn't busy at all because we went at the start of September.

I should start a website called Zoo Review and travel to every zoo in the world and review them all.  I'll do whatever it takes to raise the money for this project, and that includes selling my husband's tools and his boat and his canning supplies and his shiny new red truck.

Didn't go to the NICU Reunion 2010

Today is the NICU reunion at the hospital where Sam was transferred after he was born on October 7 of last year. I'm not near home today, and Aron and the boys are out of town fishing, so I won't be able to make it. Also, it's being held during the time when Sam usually naps. Maybe I'll make it next year.

Then again, maybe not. It was such a traumatic time in my life that my heart still bears the hurt from it. I feel blessed that we did not lose Sam, but it was still a very scary time. I don't know that I want to go see his nurses. I sent them our family Christmas letter and a picture of our family last year and will probably do the same again this year. I want them to know how much they are appreciated, these people who cared for my infant in the middle of the night and during the day when I was recovering from my own infection and caring for my other 4 children.

Thank you, staff of Overland Park Regional Medical Center NICU. Without your unceasing care, we might not have a happy, sweet, precious, almost-one-year-old around today. He sleeps next to his mama every night and nurses whenever he wants. He had his first Dum-Dum sucker the other day (no teeth yet to rot out!).

(This picture taken last week at Rocky Mountain National Park before a hike!)

Meeting Aron + Lazy Jell-O Recipe

Head on over to my other blog to see my recipe for Lazy Jell-O and to find out what happened the night Aron and I had our first date tonight 15 years ago!

I love you, Arvid!

Kids and Eating

In honor of my mom's birthday today, I will post a funny that she made recently.

You know Taco Bell's promotion for their Fourth Meal, the meal you eat late at night?

Since my kids eat all day flippin' long, my mom says, "Okay, you go get lunch.  I have plenty of stuff around my house for when they get hungry later for their Eighth Meal."

For my kids, 8th Meal is like between lunch and dinner.  I swear they eat like 12 times a day!  They should be as big as houses, but they work it off, thankfully!

School Lunches

Mom's been taping Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on ABC for us, and I have Joel watch it as a homeschool project.  Check out this blog by a woman who is eating a school lunch every day this year to check out what's in them, how they taste, the waste of plastic utensils and food, etc.