Tim And Angi's Blog » Our Family

2012 Word Of The Year

Angi — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:32:16 +0000

Last year we picked health for our word of the year. We ate out less. We made food from scratch. We used local ingredients with some coming directly from our own landlords farm. We attempted to grow our own food. We have become accustom to the slow moving country life.

And while health is still something we will continue to work toward our entire life, I thought we’d pick a new word this year. After thinking about things that we have in store this year, I choose…

Expand

ex·pand [ik-?spand] -verb
transitive verb
1: to open up : unfold
2: to increase the extent, number, volume, or scope of : enlarge
3a: to express at length or in greater detail
b : to write out in full
c : to subject to mathematical expansion

intransitive verb
1: to open out : spread
2: to increase in extent, number, volume, or scope
3: to speak or write fully or in detail
4: to feel generous or optimistic

Since we’re eating healthier, we probably won’t be expanding out waistlines. But we will focus on expanding our blog, expanding our experiences, expanding our knowledge and expanding our world.

So, what is your word of the year? Or if you make resolutions, what ones did you make this year?

Happy Thanksgiving

Angi — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:01:42 +0000

This year we decided to skip the turkey and bake a ham. I know it’s not a typical Thanksgiving meal but who said we can’t be a little different once in a while. You might remember a few years ago when we had a Hawaiian themed Christmas. It was fantastic!

As for the ham, we typically get a spiral sliced ham and bake it according to the directions. We use the included glaze packet in the last half hour or so.

Other items that will grace our table this year are:

Red Hot Sweet Potatoes (recipe to follow tomorrow)
Au gratin potaotes (from a box as I haven’t mastered these by scratch yet)
Deviled Eggs
King’s Hawaiian sweet rolls
Pumpkin pie with whipped cream
Apple pie with whipped cream
Pumpkin ice cream
Cookie dough ice cream

We’ll have lots of ham leftover so we’ll be having breakfast for dinner the next night and serve fried ham with eggs and toast.

But don’t worry, we have turkey on our menu plan the following week when we’ll put doing open-faced hot turkey sandwiches and mashed potatoes – all smothered in a creamy turkey gravy.

What did you eat this Thanksgiving? Do you have a favorite dish to make for Thanksgiving?

Our Big Announcement

Angi — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 01:27:49 +0000

I’ve been toying around the last day or so debating how to share our big announcement and finally decided that I would share it on here and then point everyone here for the answer.

What do you think it is?

A baby? A {new, bigger, better, etc} job? Something to do with our lawsuit? Maybe something entirely different?

Those have been the top guesses so…what is it?

After Lady had to be put to sleep, it left a hole in our family and the boys have been asking for a puppy.

An adorable little puppy has joined our family. She is a purebred German Shepherd. She has no name at the current time but we’re waiting to see her personality before we settle on a name.

Right now, she’s asleep at my feet because she’s spent most of the day running around with the boys. They are thrilled to have a puppy in the house.

But it reminds me of having a baby and a toddler at the same time. Although, you’d think I should have that down pat since Little T was a mere 14 months when Drama King was born.

So, what would you name this sweet little girl?

Indoor Plumbing: Oh, How I Miss You!

Angi — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 04:02:07 +0000

We don’t appreciate the little things until they aren’t there. We know it’s true but rarely think about the little things like running water, a roof over your head, food on the table, or a place to lay your head at night. Our family completely appreciates indoor plumbing but we never think about it not being there. Well, that is, until it’s not there.

This unusual weather has wrecked havoc all over the U.S. but it hits very close to home because we’ve been without water for days now. Pair that up with rolling blackouts and you have a recipe for disaster. No showers, no toilet flushing, no washing dishes, no water for drinking or cooking. And at times, no lights and no heat.

Thankfully, we were able to get some water before panic set in around town so we could conservatively use water and prioritize how we utilized the precious commodity. As it warmed up outside, we worried about the pipes bursting after being frozen for so long and we took extra care to slowly warm the pipes and keep the water flowing. Even with our extra care, we discovered a small leak in the back bathroom. We turned off the water and contacted our landlords about it. Of course, plumbers are in high demand due to many homes with frozen pipes, leaks, burst pipes, and other various issues related around the storm. So, I attempted to seal the pipe with duct tape and it’s holding for short periods of time so we can turn the water on and off at needed. At least we have a temporary solution and are crossing our fingers that the plumber can squeeze us in this weekend so we don’t have to wait a week or two until the next available appointment.

I’ve not been online a lot due to the rolling blackouts and have been reading Invasion by Jon S. Lewis (review coming soon) and spending lots of time with the family. In fact this evening, the boys have been looking forward to a blackout and it hasn’t happened so far. No blackout has allowed me to finish up some work that I’ve been putting off during the blackouts.

Don’t forget you have a chance to win one package of Roundabout Cupcake Sleeves. Make sure you get your entry in before it ends tomorrow.

2011 Word for the Year

Angi — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:59:29 +0000

Last year I contemplated picking a word for the year but couldn’t really narrow it down so I pushed the idea to the back of my mind. I’ve spent a lot of this year thinking about words and what word I would select for 2011. After much thought, I selected…

Health

health · [helth] –noun
1. the general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor: good health; poor health.
2. soundness of body or mind; freedom from disease or ailment: to have one’s health; to lose one’s health.
3. a polite or complimentary wish for a person’s health, happiness, etc., esp. as a toast: We drank a health to our guest of honor.
4. vigor; vitality: economic health.

After moving to New Mexico, we were all bound to have some health changes, good or bad, so it’s only fitting for our new environment. And due to being out in the country, our bodies will be introduced to things not found in the outskirts of a large city. And the word health can be applied to many aspects of our new surroundings.

Body

Food -We cannot order food for delivery, bring a bite to eat home, or run to a fast food joint if we don’t feel like cooking. That means we must prepare the majority of our meals. Now, one could look at living far from a fast food joint as a bad thing but we’re looking to the positive side. It means we will be able to control the quality of the food our family puts into their body thus providing us with better health. And thankfully, we are surrounded by farm lands and a dairy so we have lots of opportunities to be selective in our food. We will, also, be able to plant a garden and grow some of our own food. And in preparation of growing our own food, we have already begun composting leaves and other organic items. The boys are thrilled beyond thrilled especially Drama King.

Mind

Moving to the country has given us a new mindset. A few weeks ago, we were eating at Taco Bell when we were approached by a couple college students. Now normally in Tucson, this would be an alarm because it’s rare that people talk to each other just to be nice. But not here, the students came to our table simply to complement our boys on their table manners. Drama King was taken back at first and later that evening said “That’s never happened before. I like that people are nicer here. I’m being nicer, too.” That made my day.

So what is your word of the year?

Merry Christmas

Angi — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 07:01:10 +0000

Hope everyone has a happy holiday season.

We’ll be back soon.

2010 In Review

Angi — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 07:01:25 +0000

I know it’s early to declare 2010 over but as I put the finishing touches on our annual newsletter I thought why not summarize our year on here as well. So here goes…

The boys went to their first wrestling house show. Little T turned 7. Drama King lost his first tooth followed by his second and third tooth soon after the first. We celebrated Valentine’s Day with a nationwide valentine exchange, and Easter with Erica and Tank. The boys got new desks for their computer nook. Little T had some fantastic swim lessons. Drama King turned 6 and we celebrated while visiting the ABQ BioPark. We moved from the outskirts of a major city in Arizona to the country in New Mexico. We saw the newest Harry Potter on Thanksgiving after having a small dinner at home. Tank became a big brother. Grandma Deb started a new job.

What a year we’ve had already and we still have a few weeks and two holidays to go for the year. We’re planning a small Christmas and New Year’s celebration this year.

Stay tuned for my word of 2011.

Settling In

Angi — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:05:24 +0000

As you heard, we have arrived. We are beginning to settle into our new home after a somewhat frustrating start. We had a few problems getting all of our stuff to the new house and some problems with the van but we are here now.

It started out with a headlight out on the van and ended with having to make a few trips back to collect the rest of the stuff. We rented a 36 foot Penske truck and Tim had to make a second trip with the truck. When he went back for the second trip, he also picked up Rob to help with the unpacking.

Once we got on the road, the move was smooth. Drama King and I took Cierra in our van while Little T and Grandma Deb took Elmo in her car. We made a few stops to stretch our legs and walk the dogs. We stayed in a hotel the first evening although it was already morning by the time we got to the hotel. We picked up the keys and did the walk through of the house. It was just as wonderful as I recalled.

Of course the photos were taken before we unloaded much from the first truck load. The boys have had a ton of fun playing in the truck which brought back found memories of my childhood. Papa ran a gas station and he was a U-Haul dealer. I remember playing in the back of trucks in the afternoon and sitting in them to keep warm in the early morning while waiting for the school bus.

I’m off to do some more unpacking and putting stuff away. We should be back to blogging soon.

Lovin’ The Great Outdoors

Angi — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:16:19 +0000

If you haven’t heard, we made it to New Mexico safe and sound. We had a few bumps along the way but we’re all here now. I’ll do a bigger post and recap our trip and first few weeks along with photos once we’re settled into our new HUGE house. I cannot wait to show it to you all.

But first things first, we must unpack everything and get the house in working order. Please bear with us during this time.

I have a few reviews pending and I need to select a winner for the giveaway I have open. I promise I’ll be back and we’ll get back in the swing of blogging.

Until then…Enjoy fall!

Little T’s First Swim Lesson

Angi — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 02:14:08 +0000

Little T has always had trouble with water, if it requires or he thinks it may require putting his head under water. Needless to say, he was less then happy when I informed him that we signed him up for swim lessons this summer. I opted to put him in the adaptive aquatics for kids with disabilities instead of traditional swim lessons. I thought it might be slowed paced and more understanding of his quirks.

After his first lesson today, he is excited about doing lessons 4 days a week. He will not go into a deep swimming pool without his floaties so this was a first for him. It took about 5 minutes to coax him into the water. Another few minutes to get him to trust himself and then he quickly started doing things.

He floated on his back with his head resting on my shoulder for a minute. He refused at first to put his chin in the water but he DID it by mid-lesson. He walked along holding onto the rail ‘chasing’ the instructor towards the deeper end of the pool. He wouldn’t go past the red line that denotes the shallow from deep end. He bounced up and down over and over. He refused at first to put his mouth in the water but he DID it by the end of class. He floated on his tummy and kicked his feet pushing me and him in the water.

He is SUPER proud of himself and of course Tim and I couldn’t be more excited for him. I cannot wait for him to be able to swim. It’ll be a long road but our only goal is for him to be able to trend water in the event he falls into the pool when we’re not watching.

Forgive My Absence

Angi — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 01:06:49 +0000

This week has been filled with lots of ups and downs, mainly downs though. Early in the week, we signed up to take Little T for swim lessons. Since Little T has a speech disorder, a fear of putting his head under the water, and can be temperamental; we opted for the Adaptive Parent/Child Swim so I could join him. During the same time, Drama King will be swimming with Grandma Deb and she will be teaching him. He picked up a lot of swimming in just two days last summer with no real teaching. It went down hill from there.

Wednesday, we had to put our dog to sleep. She had eaten something and it was blocking her intestines. Due to her history of eating loads of non-food stuff (shirts, sheets, socks, plastic items, etc), we decided that putting her to sleep was in her best interest as we feared that any future digestion would cause her great distress and certain death.

Our cable modem stopped working early in the week so Tim and I spent the afternoon at my mom’s house so we could finish the work we had to get done. The cable guy came mid week and ran a bunch of tests on the line and the modem only to determine the modem died. We picked up a new modem so we could have internet until the weekend.

Saturday, Tim and I went to the eye doctor for a check up. Tim, as expected, has great vision and doesn’t need glasses. My prescription hasn’t changed for the last few years but since our insurance covers new glasses and mine are no longer covered under warranty, I thought I’d get some new ones. I really like the frames that have magnetic clip-on sunglasses but they didn’t have any in our price range so they offered to order some samples for me to look at. I browsed through the catalog and picked out three that are in our price range. I’ll go back this week or next weekend to decide on my new frames.

Sunday, Tim and I spent the morning on the phone between our cable provider and the modem manufacturer troubleshooting for the warranty replacement. We’re sending in the not working one and will wait on our replacement. But for now, we have a new modem that we’re using to connect.

If you’re planning on watching the movie awards tonight, I’ll be watching it and posting my take over at Your Celeb Source. The post will go live when the show starts in my area as we get a delayed feed.

7 Years Ago…Our Lives Changed Forever

Angi — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:18:44 +0000

Seven years ago at this moment, I was sitting in a hospital bed awaiting the birth of our first child. At the time, we did not know if our first child would be a boy or a girl. We were overwhelmed with the wonders of who our child would look like, what to name said child, and PAIN. Well, I was only feeling some of the pain thanks to an epidural but I felt pain none the less.

Now, I feel it necessary to write about Little T’s story so our newest readers have a chance to understand a little bit about him. He’s had a few bumps in his life to date so we’ll start at the beginning…

My pregnancy with Little T was fairly uneventful with the only real problem was when ever I ate anything that had cilantro as an ingredient. Cilantro gave my horrible heartburn which was a huge deal for our Mexican food loving family. His birth, on the other hand, was much more eventful. Prior to delivery, he breathed in meconium and was not breathing upon delivery. He recovered fast but none of this prepared us for what we’d face over the next few years.

He hit all of his milestones on or before the “expected” date. Well, all except talking. He walked early. He danced early. He ate early. He grew fast. He counted early. He could add and subtract up to 5 early. But he didn’t talk like others his age and we knew something was wrong. We got the normal ‘He’ll catch up’ or ‘Einstein didn’t talk until he was 3′ or ‘It runs in the family so don’t worry’ but that didn’t stop us from worrying. By the age of 2, our pediatrician was in agreement that something was going on so we began a myriad of testing. We did a standard hearing test. Inconclusive because he was unable to vocalize his answers. We did a sedated hearing test. Perfect score, the little bugger hears better than the average child his age. The technician just kept going to see how well he could hear. She gave up long before he stopped hearing. We saw our fair share of doctors who tested him for autism, aspergers, other spectrum disorders, ADHD, ADD, and many other neurological and speech disorders.

After all of this we were told, “He has Apraxia.” And off Tim and I went in search of an answer. What is Apraxia? Does he need speech therapy? Will we ever understand him? What can we do to help him now? And every other question a parent has when faced with the unknown.

[See post to watch Flash video]
Little T at age 3

Now you may be wondering, “What is Apraxia anyhow?” In a nutshell, Apraxia is a speech disorder where the brain tells the muscles what to do but the message gets jumbled between brain and muscle. Little T talks and talks A LOT but most of what he says is not understood by anyone. Over the years and through the speech therapy he has received, he has gained some ground on what we understand. If I had to put a number on it, I’d say we probably understand about 25% of what he says right now.

As we grew to understand Apraxia and all the challenges we faced, Little T began preschool through the early intervention program. And, as expected, his frustration of not being able to communicate grew. At one point, both Tim and I were at a complete loss because Little T’s violent tempers became uncontrollable and down right scary. Thankfully, Tim stumbled upon a wonderful doctor that was understanding of our wishes to try non-medication options before resorting to medicating Little T. We were told that more than likely, Little T also has ADHD but wanted to wait to make a complete diagnosis until we could get some of the speech under control because it was possible that he would lose some of the signs if he could communicate. And to help us with Little T’s behavior, he informed us of an herbal remedy (Valerian Passionflower) that has been showing benefit in overseas experiments. We began using those drops and within 6 months, Little T’s temper and violent tendencies were reduced by half. Within a year, we saw very few outbursts and the few we saw were mild in comparative to the ones he had before the drops.

Of course, not understanding 75% of what your child is trying to communicate is the frustrating part of our world. Little T can walk into a room and spend 5 minutes trying to tell you something only to walk away frustrated that you don’t “get it.” We resorted to pointing, hand signs, and physically showing us what he meant but that can only solve some of his thoughts. Thankfully with the help of a fabulous company, Prentke Romich, we have an AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) device called the Vantage Lite.

This little device is an electronic communicator that is slowly saving our day. It has taken some time for us to understand how to use it and go through trainings but it has all been worth it. This device has given Little T the power to talk to us about everything that is new and exciting with him. He absolutely loves the device but complains that it’s too heavy. I cannot wait for smaller electronics to become more durable because someday, he will be walking around with a device the size of a netbook or iPad and it will power his communication with the world.

And if you give him 5 minutes, he will tell you EVERYTHING you didn’t want to know (or maybe you do) about his favorite subject: Wrestling. He has an entire page that I created dedicated to the uncommon words found in the fantastic world of wrestling along with about a dozen or so of his favorite (and some not so favorite) wrestlers.

Now that we have communication increasing day by day, we started to tackle sleeping. Little T has NEVER been a good sleeper. He could be awake for 24 hours only to fall asleep for 2 hours and be up for another 12 hours. He was as inconsistent with sleep as a newborn baby. No matter how we set up his routine, he never got into the sleep habit. We investigated a variety of herbal sleep remedies in hopes that we could at least slow his brain down enough for him to realize he was tired and allow him to get a decent night sleep. We tried various things and nothing worked. That is until we found Sleep Assure, a lemonade flavored herbal sleep remedy. After a few nights of using Sleep Assure, we have conquered the sleep issue. He has faithfully gone to sleep every night for the last 6 months and has slept through the night almost every night. This has been wonderful. Tim and I finally get to sleep through the night without one of us having to be up on Little T patrol.

Happy Birthday, Little T.

As always, I love to give back and I started a donation page for Little T to help his fellow superstars. Donating helps create better futures for children with speech apraxia. Both Tim and I have received numerous pieces of advice and words of encouragement from the Apraxia Kids listserv. Simply knowing that we are not alone in our battles from potty training to picking the right communication device and that others are there to share their trials and tribulations is amazing.

Our World Is A Little Cleaner Today

Angi — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:53:12 +0000

We walked to our neighborhood park this afternoon and along the way our boys decided to help make the world a little cleaner. They each picked up as many trash items as they could hold in their little hands and carried them all the way to the park. When we got to the park, they each threw the items in the trash and were very proud of themselves.

On the way home, they repeated the process and threw the items in our garbage. They were so proud of themselves for helping the environment that I asked them if they wanted to bring a small trash bag with us next time. They were very excited about that idea because they could pick up a lot more with a small bag then they were able to carry today.

New Paint Job

Angi — Sun, 17 May 2009 07:00:46 +0000

Drama King asked ever so nicely to paint a “project” so out came the paint, paper and brushes. He took out his own scissors (the ones etched with his name) and completed his project. He said he wanted to finish “touching up” his project later so I let him keep the paint out. About an hour later, Tim and I heard the garage door opening and closing so Tim went to check it out. A few seconds later I hear him scream for me to come help him.

I get up and walk towards the garage while trying to figure out what what going on. When I got to the garage, I saw it. The boys decided to paint our van and the garage wall. Thankfully, we only buy washable paints and the boys were able to easily wipe off the paint with a little water. Of course after an incident like that, we attempt to figure out who’s idea and why? This round it was Drama King’s idea because he doesn’t like the color of the van and the garage is unpainted unlike the rest of the house. At least they had a reason!

Butterfly Send Off

Angi — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:02:29 +0000

This afternoon we released our little butterflies. Tim setup the video camera on the tripod to capture the release on film but it appears the movie may not have come out very well so he’s working on it. While the camera rolled he also snapped a handful of photos of the release.

We opened up Little T’s cage first and John Cena and Big Show quickly fluttered away. Next, we opened Drama King’s cage. Cat and Turtle fluttered off behind John Cena and Big Show. Moe stayed behind and appeared to not have any interest in leaving. He hobbled around on the ground for a while until we noticed that one of his wings was malformed and he was unable to fly very far. The boys followed him around watching him while I constructed a wire cube with 2 missing sides to allow for easy access to the put food inside the cage. i covered the cube with a mesh laundry bag. We added a child sized clothes hanger at the top and hung the cage in the opening between the living room and dining room.

Drama King is worried about his new pet but at the same time is very excited about having a butterfly. He held her when we were attempting the release and we got a photo of him and Moe. I’ll be uploading though to the album soon so go check them out.

Tim And Angi's Blog » Our Family

2012 Word Of The Year

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Happy Thanksgiving

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Our Big Announcement

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Indoor Plumbing: Oh, How I Miss You!

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2011 Word for the Year

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Merry Christmas

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2010 In Review

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Settling In

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Lovin’ The Great Outdoors

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Little T’s First Swim Lesson

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Forgive My Absence

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7 Years Ago…Our Lives Changed Forever

Happy Birthday, Little T.

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