The Denver Zoo

 My daughter's flight was on Friday, so on Saturday we loaded up the crew and headed to the zoo.  The first order of business was to apply sunscreen liberally - spf 60 - and we were still a little red in places.  Then the nine year old signed Bert the Hippo's birthday card.  Bert is 57 - the second oldest hippo living in US Zoos.  Bert wasn't in much of a visiting mood.  We saw his backside but that was it.

 It was crazy how close the kids could get to the animals - thankfully mostly through glass, as was the case with the viper...

And the boa.  We saw him curled up right by the glass, then saw this picture of one eating a gazelle...

Like this one.

The boys liked the zoo - especially before it got overly hot and we were all tired.

We got to watch a special program that featured a bunch of different types of birds.

They were all trained to go to certain spots, including several who flew out and landed on perches over the audiences.

 My sister and her husband rented a jeep to drive their daughter around in.  It was a two-seater so my boys took turns riding with her.  I had my double stroller too (the red one in the background).

Even the nine year old took a turn with his uncle Mario Andretti manning the engine.  It was a pretty wild ride.  (You really ought to see Mario driving those race car carts at Home Depot.  When he takes my boys, I make a point of going the other direction and pretending like I don't have children - ha).

The zoo had a bird building that was like a rain forest.  We were out in the open with the birds, which was pretty cool.

The four year old especially liked it.

Can you see what they're looking at.  They could have touched the bird if they had tried.

It was a very pretty bird too, with a bright red mohawk.

At first I thought this was a toucan, but it is actually called a hornbill I think.  It's a huge bird.

 They also had peacocks there.  We never got to see one open it's fan though.  Toward the end of the day we saw some peacocks loose on the grounds too.  Pretty cool.

Can you sleep standing on one foot, with your head turned completely backwards resting on your back?  Yeah. I thought not.  I can't for the life of me see how this could be comfortable ... or how they could keep from tipping over.

 See the baby birds in this nest?  We got to watch the mama feeding them.  Pretty cool.

I thought this was a pretty one.

The zoo had a carousel too, so we took turns watching the strollers and rode it.  My niece didn't stay on her animal very long.

See the cheetah in the middle behind the row of polar bears? That's my nine year old.

My brother-in-law convinced my niece to ride with him at the end.  See the animal they are on?  It's called an okapi.  It's back legs are like a zebra, the middle is a rich red brown, the head is giraffe-like with the bumps and a long neck and the front legs have other strange stripes.  It was my favorite animal at the zoo.

 Here's a picture of the real thing.  I wish he would have turned sideways too.

Anyway, after the nine year old and his uncle and cousin rode the carousel, it was my turn to attempt it with the two little boys.  The four year old was panicking so bad he scared the two year old so that he wouldn't stay on his animal either.  I had chosen a stationary animal for the four year old but he wouldn't even sit on it when it wasn't moving.

 We did much better when we sat on the bench.  That's why I chose the animals I did - so we could easily move to the bench.

When we got off the carousel the four year old told me "I'm going to ride the train instead.  It will be safer."

 The two year old started out on the seat with the nine year old but crawled back to me (in the seat behind them) before the train even started moving.

Second row is my sister's family :)

The pace of this ride was much more to the liking of my four year old.

And it turned out that the four year old was correct. It was a safer (and much slower) ride.  At one point, several of the men, including the engineer, had to keep getting off the train and pushing.

And here's what we had for lunch. FUN.  We found a food truck inside the zoo and had burger sliders.

The cone part is full of tater tots and the burgers had an option for "style."  The boys chose "Plain Jane" - which was just pickles and ketchup and mustard.  I ordered "The Jam" which had bacon onion jam and blue cheese.  It was excellent. :)

After lunch we headed off to find the monkeys.  These fun birds were on "Monkey Island."  I forget what they're called.

 And then we found my four year old's favorite animal ever.  He's pretty sure he is a monkey.  He is always telling me "I look like a monkey."

The two year old was pretty excited about the bears.  That was probably his favorite thing.  That and the giant snakes he could get inches away from.

 The people who had been "visiting" these monkeys before we got there should have been kicked out of the zoo.  They were beating on the glass and screaming/growling at the monkeys and had them all riled up.  Unfortunately monkey see, monkey do, and we had to work to get the four year old to quit hitting the glass.

He LOVES monkeys and thought they loved him back because they were "talking" to him.

It was really fun to see him seeing real monkeys for the first time ever.  He has several stuffed animal monkeys and is always pretending to be one.

There were beautiful flowers all around the zoo.  This one was the size of a small dinner plate.

 There were a lot of fun things for the kids to do.  This was in the monkey area.  This is our whole crew of little people.

 These were the hugest camels I have ever seen.  Must be a different kind than they usually take around to circuses and fairs.  They were enormous.

By afternoon it was SO hot we thought we might die.  Okay, maybe not die, but everyone was completely exhausted and overheated.

 The water fountains were few and far between.  They really wanted you to buy from their ridiculously overpriced concessions.

 When we did find one, we drenched the boys heads and refilled our cups.

 Our two year old decided it was safer to dip his hand into the water stream, then lick his fingers and repeat the process.  It was pretty cute.

So after everyone thought they were too exhausted to continue, we rushed through the rest of the zoo, taking the long route so we could go by the elephants and giraffes, then we headed for the air conditioned vehicle.

 Pretty much everyone in the back of the Excursion crashed right away.

She's Outta Here ;)

 Last weekend the boys and I took their sister to Denver to fly back to college in NC.  She was pretty excited to get back to school and her friends.

She was also happy to leave behind the crazy summer where she worked 70 hours a week at two different jobs.  But it was worth it.  She paid half of her school year off with just the summer.

She had an afternoon flight so we headed to her choice of restaurants for lunch - Johnny Carino's.  My mom and sister and her family joined us.  We had a nice visit before having to drop her off.  (It was not as somber as the picture looks - and the color is terrible because I didn't use a flash).

 I'm happy for her to be back where she wants to be, but things will be a little dull around here without her.

Don't you just love the necklace she bought while we were out shopping one day?

Before we took her to the airport, the two year old got to open his birthday gift from Grammy.

She bought him a toy vacuum that really sucks up dirt.

He uses it a lot ... thinks he has to use his when I use mine.  He's very helpful ;)

 So, after we dropped of my daughter at the airport, we headed over for a tour of Ikea.  I'd never been there and it was pretty cool.  I didn't like that you had to walk through the entire circuit to get out of the store, and by the time we were done, the kids were completely OVER IT.  But I did find some things I liked.  (The picture above shows the moment the 9 year old realized he matched the couch.)

 You can see we were a little out of control.  Orange is the 9 year old's favorite color, and you can probably guess by what he's wearing what his favorite football team is.  We've been wanting to do the boys' room in Denver Bronco's orange and blue and white.  He decided he NEEDS this couch for his bedroom.  Yeah.

 I fell in love with this table.  It folds up to seat 6 or stretches out to seat 10.  And the price was really good.  I'm thinking this would be an awesome homeschool table.  The laminate version is under $250.

Ooh, and then there's this.  Wouldn't this be perfect for a media room?  Or our library?????  This was considerably more than the table.

Oh, and in case my husband is reading this blog, here's a big blue hint of what to get me for the next holiday. :)

After Ikea, we hit Krispy Kreme for a quick hot snack, then headed to the brand new Cabelas that was having it's grand opening.  These are apparently the swamp people.  I have no idea who they are as we don't have television service (and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't watch their show if we did) but my brother-in-law is from Louisiana and was very excited about them being there... and then he didn't even make it there to meet them.  So this picture is for you, J.

This Cabelas looks pretty much like the one in Sydney, Nebraska.  Lots of mounts and such.  I actually went there because I was hoping to find some good shoes but I didn't find what I was looking for, so I just bought a huge bag of jerky instead.  

I took this picture to show my husband the awesome price I paid for fuel on the trip (didn't mention to him that I used my Mom's gas points for a 65 cent discount per gallon.)

It still took $91 to fill my nearly empty tank. :(

Jackpot ;)

 I've wanted car beds for my boys since my oldest was little (and he's 23 now). Finally I came across one that was affordable.  We have a local Facebook for-sale page (kind of works like Craigslist, which we don't have) and this bed was listed for $25! It holds a crib mattress and our youngest two both think it's great.

My 2 year old even took a nap on it this morning.  He was so tired that he was willing to stay in bed.  Not sure he will do that all the time but it's a good start.  Now I just need to find two more (hopefully at this price, and bigger).  Lets just hope it doesn't take another 23 years...

Oh, and then there's this little bargain.  It's a Yamaha Vmax 500 and I bought it for $300.  It runs and is in very good condition - woohooooo.  Can you tell the boys are all praying for snow now?

Dinner and a Show

The kids were very distracted during lunchtime the other day.  We had a visitor in our backyard.

 She came for lunch (the leaves on our trees) and stuck around for naptime.  She even stuck to our schedule and napped in our backyard for a few hours.

When she got up from her nap, it was time for a snack.  This moose belongs in daycare ;)

The Rant

Ever have one of those days?  (or weeks? or years?)  It's easy to fall into the habit of posting only the good things going on in our lives.  But I'm not perfect, and I'm guessing none of you are either, no matter how "pinterest-perfect" your life looks online.  I've been having some really bad days lately and figure it might do me good to fess up to it.  It's not any one big thing - just all the little things in life that add up to the weight of a big thing.  I've been SO overwhelmed lately.

Let's start with this little guy. Poor kid just turned two years old, and you'd think by now we would have a better handle on his allergy issues.  But we don't.  And I don't know how to fix that.  He has eczema too, and when his allergies act up, he breaks out worse and is extremely itchy.

He scratches - especially his ankles - until they are raw and bloody.  Several days lately I have gotten him up and dressed, only to turn around and put a new footed sleeper back on him.  He knows how to take off socks and shoes so he can scratch, but the sleepers offer some protection (especially the ones with the snap tab that covers the top of the zipper).

He reacts to the foods he's allergic to by breaking out badly and getting very itchy (except for the peanut allergy - which makes him have an anaphalactic reaction).  So far we're aware that he's allergic to eggs, dairy, wheat, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, corn, coconut, sesame, cantaloupe and pineapple.  The hidden things give us fits (such as corn products like maltodextrin, lecithin, xanthan gum and sorbitol - which you probably don't know are corn products unless you're allergic to corn.)  Then there are all the things he is allergic to that we aren't aware of yet.  Another frustrating thing about this is figuring out what to feed the poor kid.  Sometimes I find something he can have only to have the product disappear from all shelves.  I had a particular mayonnaise he could have that I now can't find anywhere.  Baking is also a challenge.  Nothing comes out the same consistency you think it should or it does and you post a recipe online, but the day two results are inedible.

He's on a daily dose of liquid Claritin, and gets Benedryl when he is itchy (which is a lot lately).  We use prescription strength triamcinalone cream too (which seems like it's painful to him - as do baths).  And then I get "helpful" advise to give him all sorts of odd things - liquid emu oil, some soap I can't pronounce or remember (never mind that it contains coconut, which he allergic to.)  It's so frustrating.  It's bad enough that I can't figure out how to help my baby, but to have every person we run into offer odd remedies is just too much.  I mean really, do they think we haven't been to the doctor (or multiple doctors and specialists)?  Do they think they really know some secret remedy that all the doctors in America are unaware of?  Seriously people.  (Sorry. This was not meant to be a rant).

Actually that's just one of the MANY things going on here.  Just the tip of the iceberg.  Everything from health issues to just being mentally and physically overwhelmed and exhausted.  The house search has a lot to do with that.  While we have the freedom to move when we want to (rather than the 30 day rush we were in last time), it's still a big decision and will require an enormous amount of work.  We looked at a couple possible houses last week but neither are exactly what we need.  Rent here is crazy. We currently pay $1300/month. We looked at one place for $1200, and it was really nice, but pretty small, and had no garage or shed.  Then we heard about one for $975 - an amazing deal here.  I went to look at it, then took my husband to see it when he got off work.  It looks great from the outside and has a big detached garage and work shed.  But it's an old (very old) doublewide covered in pretty wood siding.  It has an addition built on, and we would fit, but it's pretty dumpy on the inside and they're not willing to replace the orange shag carpet.  The ceilings are low and it's very dark.  The location was perfect though and there is an amazing view of the mountains. The garage and shed would be nice, but our Excursion would be just a couple inches too tall to fit inside.  It was depressing though to get our hopes up about saving all that money only to realize that the inside was in such poor condition.

The daycare has also been driving me nuts lately - probably just all the stress of regular life has made it more difficult for me to put up with the noise and chaos.  My daughter is flying back to college on the other side of the country at the end of this week. I have to take her to Denver to fly out (about 7-8 hours from here). We have family in Colorado so I planned to take all of next week off to visit, but then my daycare fill-in person had to cancel because one of her children needs surgery.  So no vacation.

Oh and the diet I was on last year - the one I lost over 100 pounds on?  It went well up to the point where we had a majorly stressful month in April.  It is now a hopeless disaster.  I've gained a lot of weight back and feel horrible both physically and mentally.  I've tried repeatedly to go back on the diet but I can't even seem to make it through a single day.  The cravings are way worse than they ever were before.  I go to bed each night thinking I can turn this around and that the next day will be better, but it never is.  Very frustrating.  I feel like it would have been better never to have lost the weight in the first place.  Now everybody is paying attention and sees what a horrible failure I am.

On top of all that, the four year old's autism seems more pronounced these days.  We're having more melt-downs and he is way more clingy ... as in, something as simple as making dinner has become a huge ordeal because I can't move without tripping over him.  He literally clings to my leg.  And it's not just when I'm making dinner, but all the time.  His autism isn't bad enough for strangers to see that he has a legitimate reason to act like he does, so they assume he's just really naughty (aka - she's a horrible mom. Why can't she control that child. Why doesn't she make him stop that?)
 

This is how battered I feel.  This is what he looked like after a night of sleeping with me.  Sounds bad eh?  Things do when you don't have the full story.

He went to bed like this - sweet and cuddly.  (He gets to sleep with me when Daddy works overnight.)  He had a bloody nose in the middle of the night which he must have wiped all over his face with his hand.  Remarkably, there were just a couple spots of blood on his pillow and a little on his blanket but mostly just on his face.

He's been having a problem going to church lately.  He gets easily overwhelmed by crowds and three Sundays ago we were late.  When we got to his Sunday school classroom (which is in one sectioned-off area of the nursery) there were a lot of kids there already - several that he hadn't met before.  He was nervous about it, but I was in a hurry to get to my own class, so I just dropped him and the two year old off and then quickly went to my class.  It wasn't more than 10 minutes before they had to come get me.  He was having a full panic-attack-melt-down.  I took him with me, consoled him and tried to get him to go to my class, but he wouldn't.  The only thing I could get him to do without panicking was to sit with me in an empty room.

The next week, he wouldn't even think of entering that Sunday school room again, so I took him to my class.  I couldn't get him to sit in his own chair.  He wanted to be held - well more like cradled.  Like a baby.  And rocked.  By the end of class, my back hurt so bad I could hardly stand up.  It was a problem all last week and still pretty sensitive.  We have a 30 minute break between Sunday school and the worship service, so I sat with him in the nursery hoping to get him to settle in.  No such luck.  We finally just went home.

Yesterday I figured I'd try to get him there first so he wouldn't have to walk into a class full of kids.  He was okay as long as I was there- but very clingy.  I even managed to get him to sit in his own chair (which even before all this happened, he rarely did). But I had to sit right next to him. When it was time for me to go to my class though, he insisted on going with me.  I did (eventually) manage to get him into his own seat.  I know it's progress, but it's very exhausting (both mentally and physically) for me, and I'm sure for him too.  Even writing it doesn't sound bad when you can't see the clinging to my leg to the point of not being able to walk without carrying him (all 45 pounds of him).

He's having an exceptionally hard time with the daycare kids too.  I think he sees it as an invasion, and I guess I can understand that.  One of his biggest challenges is dealing with overwhelming stimuli, and there's really no other way to describe living in a daycare, despite how well it's managed.  For that matter, it seems like the daycare might be an issue for the two year old to.  He doesn't mind the kids, but our pediatrician suggested that he might have environmental allergies that we haven't tested for - cat and dog dander specifically.  All the daycare kids have pets and the doctor suggested that they may be aggravating his eczema.  Then of course there are crumbs from the lunch I'm required to feed the kids (specific requirements for carbs and milk that he can't have). No matter how much cleaning is done, there are always crumbs... or generous friends who like to share (normally a great quality.)  I've had to resort to locking the two year old into a high chair until I can get everything and everyone wiped and vacuumed.  But still we have issues.

After writing all this out, it doesn't seem like it should be so bad.  And yet...

Am I whining too much?  Should I be able to handle all this without complaint? I know God promises not to give us more than we can handle, and I fully trust that that is true.  Most days I handle all this without a second thought.  After all, I wouldn't trade my kids for anything in the world. (I just realized I haven't even mentioned my nine year old who is diabetic and has to do 4 shots of insulin per day, or my 23 year old son in the Air Force, stationed in the increasingly unfriendly country of Turkey, or my 20 year old daughter ready to fly across the country for college). I just feel like some days I can't catch my breath.  Ever have those days?  I really do love my life, but I would definitely enjoy a little less stress.

Anniversary Get-Away

 We celebrated 17 years of marriage (18 years together) this weekend.  We had a very nice, low-key get away.  We went to the nicest hotel in town, where our daughter who works there got us a great discount.  We didn't have time away from work to go any farther.  We both worked Friday and only had Saturday off.  But it was really nice.  We went out for a nice dinner, took a little drive, and enjoyed the peace and quiet together.  We did a little yard sale shopping Saturday morning, and read and napped a bit before picking up the boys.  Then we had a fun family day followed by a pizza dinner. We celebrated not only our marriage, but also our happy family.  It was a perfect weekend.  We also decided to plan a big getaway for our 20th anniversary.  The plan is an Alaskan cruise :)  We're going to start saving up for it now.  Hey S & J, can you babysit for us the week of our anniversary, 2016?

This has nothing to do with our anniversary, but I had to include it.  The four year old brought me the can opener and told me, "This is for scissorin' mandarins." :)

Rice Grinding

Making the allergen free banana bread yesterday (along with reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) has inspired me to be a little more adventurous with my kitchen projects.  I bought this grain mill and a boat load of allergy-free cookbooks before we moved.  The idea was that it would more than pay for itself (and it will if I use it more!) because store bought specialty flour mixes are really expensive.  The "gluten free" cake mixes and such are ridiculously expensive, and our little man has so many allergies that he can't have 99% of those.  So I bought it with good intentions, but then there was all the drama of my husband losing his job/housing etc. In the midst of all that stress I didn't feel up to figuring out anything beyond basic matters of survival.

But having a little success yesterday with the banana bread was very inspiring.  I stumbled across a recipe for gluten free play doh on one of the blogs I read, and it calls for white rice flour.  I've seen these recipes before and always intended to try making some, but just haven't made the time for it yet.  And I only had brown rice flour in the cupboard.  Then I remembered the grain mill. 

 It does an amazing job, but it does take quite a bit of elbow grease.  It isn't hard to turn the handle, but it takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get enough flour to do anything with.  The ones with a motor cost a fortune, so for now I'm left with a hand crank.  But I really can't complain.  It has an adjustment for how fine you want to grind your grain, and I only had to run it through once to get it ground as fine as I wanted it (after reading some reviews of different mills that require grinding twice).  

I went ahead and made enough to fill a small container.  I haven't had time to make the play doh yet and if it goes well, I'll be making a big batch for the church nursery.  They play with play doh all the time, and it's a pain for the nursery workers to have to keep my little one out of it.

I'm not sure how much these little containers hold.  I'm guessing 6 or 7 cups.  They are pretty handy.  The ones with the blue lids were found at the Dollar Store and the one with the red lid came in a set of three (nested together so the other two are larger) from the Family Dollar.  They have pour spouts on the lids.  I keep all the two year old's allergy free foods in these and keep them all in a separate cupboard so they don't get cross-contaminated.  The one with the blue lid on the left is the extra oatmeal I ground when I was making banana bread.  I didn't want to do too much at once since it's easy enough to do in the blender and I wanted it to be fresh.  Now I just have to get around to making the play doh.  Maybe during naptime...

July Reading

Well, I got through most of the books I wanted to this month.  I really would have liked to have finished the Semi Charmed Book Challenge.  I have two books left to read for that one ... well, really just one and a half as I'm in the middle of one of those.  So here's what I read this month.  I managed to fit everything into the requirements of the book challenge, so I'm including the categories and points.  (In case you're wondering about the oddly stacked pile of books, they are always pictured in the order I read them - bottom book first, top book most recent.)

5 points: Freebie! Carly's Voice by Arthur Fleischmann (391 pgs) (This one is about autism and is a must read for anyone working with handicapped people. Very eye opening.
5:  Read a book that is less than 150 pages long. Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Gardner (79 pgs)
10: Read a book with a color in the title. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (270 pgs)
10: Read a book that is not the first in its series. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (525 pgs) (Divergent series)
15: Read a book it seems everyone but you has read! The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneggar (546 pgs)
15: Read a banned book. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (371 pgs)  (This was our library evening book club's choice for July)
20: Read a book written by a celebrity. The Notes: Ronald Reagan's Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom by Ronald Reagan (299 pgs)
20: Read a book that takes place in a state you have never been in. A Thorn in my Pocket by Eustacia Cutler (224 pgs) (Massachusetts/New York) (this is another autism book - the author is Temple Grandin's mother.  Temple is very well known in the autism circle.)
25: Read a book that is at least 400 pages long. Divergent by Veronica Roth (487 pgs) (I never would have read this had it not been the July choice for one of my online book clubs.  I was surprised I liked it so well I read the second book in the series and plan to read the third when it comes out in October.)
25: Read a book with a main character who shares your first name. (Judi - character was Judith) To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal (436 pgs)

TOTAL POINTS:150

I still need to read a nonfiction book that is not a memoir for 20 points (I'm in the middle of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, which also is the book choice for my library daytime book club). And I need to read a book written by an author born in the same year as me for 30 points.  I chose HHhH by Laurent Binet.  I should have read it before Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and I would have had 11 books read in July instead of 10.  But the book club meets next Tuesday and I wanted to be sure I had finished the book (even though I probably won't be able to attend the meeting this month).

I've done so much reading I've had to move on to the next Reading Journal.  My 20 year old daughter thinks I'm crazy to get the same exact design, but I like uniformity on a bookshelf, and I'm thinking I'll continue to journal my reading from now on.  I might just stick with this book for good.  I will either label them with a sticker or use a gold marker right on the spine - something like 2013-1 and 2013-2 and so on.

So my stats for July are as follows:
10 Books Read
14 1/2 inches
3,628 pages

Totals for the year:
52 books read
63 3/4 inches
15,673 pages

That means that I have completed my goal for the entire year.  My goal was to read one book a week = 52 books.  I am currently reading book number 53!!  Now I'm going to see if I can possibly double that and finish 104 by the end of the year.  Should be a challenge, but fun to try.  I'm a little past halfway in the year so I'll have to kick it up a notch.  I'm going to have to read 10 books a month (which seems unlikely for every single month, but we'll see).  I read a book last year about a woman who committed to read a book every single day of the year.  She must have completely ignored her family during that time.  And she only read shorter books.  I found that one of the most difficult categories to find books for was the "under 150 pages" category.  None of the ones I saw sounded very interesting, and I hated the one I read.