Crap...

It is 10:25 PM. I have fever chills. Everything hurts, my head feels like it is about ready to explode and my throat is feeling weird.

I figured I would be out of the woods now, after all, it is over a week ago since Ken and Sarah got sick.

This sucks majorly! We will see what tomorrow brings, but it sure isn't looking promising. Great...

What?

The daughter is showing signs of hearing problems. She will constantly say "What?" or "Say that again?". She just can't hear well. It has probably gone on for about 2 weeks now, so it is time to call her pediatrician and have him take a look.

I tried to test her by saying things softly, and she seemed to pick up very quickly when I asked "Do you want some candy?"... But something is definitely going on. She says it comes and goes, sometimes she can hear well, sometimes less so.

I suspect it could be a wax build up or maybe fluid. She has been battling a pretty bad cold for a while. I don't think it could be an ear infection, since she has had no pain.

She did have some ear problems a few years ago, it was residual effects from an ear infection, and there was some fluid buildup from nasal dripping. Some steroid nasal spray took care of the swelling that was hindering this to clear up at that time.

I will call on Monday and see if we can come in Monday afternoon or Tuesday. We have a play date scheduled for Monday morning, and we don't want to miss seeing our friends up in Apollo Beach, it has been a long time since we saw S and her two daughters.

We will see what the doctor has to say. I know they have pretty good equipment in their office to check ears, so we should be able to get an idea right away. Another benefit of going to Dr L (other than he being the highest ranking pediatrician in the area and being super nice) is that his office is a stone throw away form our house. We can actually see it from our back yard!

Hope you are all having a great weekend. It has been mostly work for me so far!

Sexual Offenders/Predators

I am not sure how it is in other states, but Florida has a pretty handy system for keeping track of any sexual predators living close to you. This is information particularly important to know if you have children. Florida just updated their system, so you can now receive e-mail updates about any offenders or predators living within a 2 mile radius of your address. You can also add the addresses of other locations that you or your children may visit often.

I have visited this web site several times before, but not on a regular basis. By receiving these automatic updates anytime some new offender moves into our vicinity is great. Of course, not every person on this list is a creep, if you read the details of their offense you can sometimes find Romeo and Julia cases, where there is a clear romantic relationship, but perhaps one of them was under 18, and the other a year or to above.

If you live in Florida you might want to take a look for yourself. It could be life saving information: Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

There is also a national search site, this seems to be very good as well. You can check it out on the National Sex Offender Registry.

Sonic boom

Last night I got to experience something that you don't get to experience that often. During my almost 12 years year in the US I have only noticed it a handful of times.

I am talking about a Sonic Boom. It is the shocks caused by the supersonic flight of a space shuttle, in last night's example it was the Endeavour landing at Kennedy Space Center at around 8:40 PM. A Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding a lot like an explosion, and that is what we first thought it was, since it severely rattled all our windows and doors, but then, Floridians as we now are, realized quickly that it must have been a sonic boom.

We live on the opposite side of Florida, so it is amazing thinking we can actually hear the space shuttle landing! The Endeavour landed after 16 days in space and 250 orbits around Earth. Cool...

Here is a picture of the Endeavour landing last night:

Alltså hallå?

Hur ska jag kunna jobba och koncentrera mig när dottern har placerat en stor skål med överblivet påskgodis mitt framför näsan på mig? Jag kan ju inte hjälpa att den står där. Det bara blir så att jag äter ur den. Och det är inte ens något gott godis. Suck...

Behöver nog gå med i syrrans "carb bootcamp" för att bryta mitt sockerberoende. Jag ska nog bara ta en till... och ett par, tre, fyra M&Ms...

Snabbis

Otroligt nog ingen förkylning ännu... Har nu tagit mig an flera nya projekt, så den får helt enkelt hålla sig borta. Full rulle hela veckan lär det bli!

Ha en bra dag!

No cold yet...

Woke up feeling just fine, so I sure hope that will continue, especially since I took a larger job, due on Friday, last night.

Ken had 103 in fever last night, so he was not looking forward going to work today. Sarah seems fine, but she sounded horrible coughing though the night, so Ken thought we should keep her home one more day. I have to work, but she is happy entertaining herself anyway, as long as I take frequent cuddle brakes and goes for a few walks with the dogs. She is such a nice girl. I am very lucky to have her!

So I keep my fingers crossed and hope I have dodged this one.

Today I am getting the new DVD player delivered, can't wait to get rid of the old one...

Have a great day!

Har inte lust

Vill inte bli sjuk, det är så himla jobbigt. Hittils känns det OK, men man vet ju aldrig. Har tre lass tvätt kvar, sedan är det i alla fall klart. Har tvättat alla filtar, kuddar lakan och dylikt. Försöker städa bort så mycket baciller jag kan. Skrubbade badrummet osv.

Ska bunkra upp med en näringsrik sallad ikväll. Mycket grönt te och vatten. Huga mig. Hoppas, hoppas jag slipper! :-)

Odd planning

I am pretty sure I am getting sick too. It would be a miracle if I did not...

So I am making some preparations, since I know I will be on my own, nobody will take care of me...

I finished all the work that I had, I will clean a bit and do laundry and then I am going to the store to get some food that will work when you don't really have any energy to cook, plus lots of soups, juice and other things that are good when you are sick.

I rather be prepared and ready, kind of like when you are waiting for a hurricane. Maybe I am silly, but it won't hurt being a bit prepared, and if I get half as sick as Ken has been I won't be up for much.

I think I will make my special grilled chicken salad tonight, it might be good with all the extra fresh veggies.

Sigh. I really really hope it won't me too. But most likely it will. Oh well, at least it won't come as a surprise ha, ha! :-)

Fortfarande sjukt häromkring

Igår var maken rena barnrumpan igen, det är ju så synd om honom, och han är ju så gott som döende....

Idag var han uppe och tog en dusch, sedan gick han tillbaka till sängen och meddelade att han skulle stanna hemma. Vi pratar om en ren arbetsnarkoman här, en revisor mitt i deklarationssäsongen. Det ska till extreme omständigheter för att han ska stanna hemma...

Han vaknade med nästan 39 i feber, så han är fortfarande sjuk. Han har sovit, sovit och sovit. Förutom att han är sjuk så har nog kroppen tagit igen alla dessa timmars sömn som hans överarbetade själv behövde...

Sarah hade ingen feber i morse, men hon låter fruktansvärt förkyld. Så jag låter henne stanna hemma. Och hon ville ha frukost imorse, det var ett bra tecken.

Idag har jag ett ganska så stort jobb som måste göras. Vi får väl se hur det går med två sjuklingar i huset. Vaknade till en ganska kylig morgon, tydligen någon arktisk vind som svepte ner över natten. Men någon arktisk kyla blir det nog knappast här, ska visst bli runt 20 grader.

Vi hade en mycket trevlig påsk-brunch på The Sun House på Bradenton Beach. Vi hade turen att få ett perfekt bord med havsutsikt ut över den mexikanska gulfen, och det var en mycket fin dag, så det var stor aktivitet på stranden. Ken var inte alls pigg, så han grämde sig att han inte kunde äta så mycket som han ville av all den goda maten. Det fanns allt möjligt! Fick faktsikt Sarah att äta lite, så det var ju bra. Goda efterätter hade de dessutom. När vi kom hem somnade Ken på stört och lyfte knappt huvudet. Senare på kvällen straxt efter sju var det underbart. Jag och Sarah tog hundarna på en 50 minuters lång promenad. Det doftade vår, särskilt jasmin och apelsinblommor, och det var så där lagom varmt med en len bris. Underbart! Och lite frisk luft behövdes efter en regning helg inomhus med alla förkylningsbaciller.

Jag får väl anta att jag ska bli sjuk med, så många snorpapper som jag har plockat upp och så många hostningar som jag har fått direkt i ansiktet. Så jag får skynda mig att göra klart det här jobbet, städa lite, se till att tvätten är klar och handla hem lite "sjukmat", för jag lär ju inte få lika bra markservice som de har. Fast Sarah sa att hon skulle ta hand om mig om jag blev sjuk, det var ju snällt!

Easter Egg Hunt!

Yesterday both Sarah and Ken were sick! Just a cold, but still a pest. Usually Ken is a hopeless baby, but we both behaved nice towards each other. Otherwise he is usually on the couch moaning in agony over how bad he feels for himself, while I get crankier and crankier listening to him. But we were all normal yesterday. Just a regular family with colds. I hope I don't get it.

This morning it was time for the BIG Easter Egg Hunt, and even if Sarah was a bit sick she didn't want to miss it! I woke up at 6 AM just to give Ken some Tylenol for the fever, so by the time we left he would be on his best behavior (I know, very selfish of me, he didn't get the Tylenol out of just well meaning for him, it was more for me!)

We got to the park a bit late, figuring we would miss the actual arrival of Peter Cottontail (aka the Easter Bunny), but they were running a bit late too, so we actually happened to be on a small road and got the whole thing going by us, pirates and all! We caught a few of the beads they were throwing from the ship. (The county have the Easter Egg Hunt in conjunction with the month long Desoto Festival, which celebrate the beginning of our town when Hernando De Soto discovered it in the 16th century.

I had checked teh weather, so even if it wasn't going to be cold, we knew there was likely to be rain. I had prepped by bringing extra clothes, and just as it was Sarah's age group's turn on their field the rain started to pour. We were in and out of there very fast, and she had a great time even if we got a bit wet!

I sent the husband to work with some cold medicine, and I have been working a bit myself. I think the rest of the afternoon will be for watching movies. And with these sick guys and this rainy weather I am definitely making Thai Chicken Soup for dinner today...

Happy Easter/Glad Påsk!

Chokladmonster!

Först, tack för de positiva kommentarerna. Man kan ju inte gör aannat att leva livet till fullo, gör man inte det så är det ju inget kul längre...

När jag kom hem efter att ha hämtat Sarah på skolan möttes vi av en ovälkommen syn...

Det var silvrigt metallomslagspapper över hela huset. Detta kunde ju bara betyda en sak: att hundarna had elyckats ta sig upp på köksön och snott en hel skål med Hersey's Kisses-choklad! De är nämligen inslagna i silvrigt metallpapper... Hur lyckades de ta sig upp där?

Ja som ni säkert vet är ju hundar allergiska mot choklad. Har dock efter allehanda chokladstölder under de snart 8 år vi haft d ehär busaran lärt mig vilka mängder de kan tolerera. Den känsligare av de två, Stan, brukar lida lite efteråt i form av rejäla spyor och skitränna, men inte mer än det är straff nog för hans påhitt... De har druckit mycket vatten och Stan har spytt en gång. Det blir väl några intressanta silverfläckade korvar senare...

Tycker själv att all Hersey choklad smakar spya, annars hade det nog inte stått någon skål med choklad i kvar på köksön... Kan ju inte vara lätt att vara superkänsligt mot choklad när de ju verkligen tycker det är så smaskens! De har tom brutit sig in i besökandes väskor (blixtlås och allt) och snott choklad... De älskar det verkligem de små skitarna! :-)

Boknörd???

Gjorde boknördstestet som har börjat sprida sig, hos bland annat SunnySwede och Saltistjejen. Gör det du med vetja!

Web cam

I normally never use it, but my daughter's preschool has a web cam system you as a parent can log into and see your kiddos when they are in school. Maybe a good thing if you are a brand new mom and have a hard time leaving your baby at daycare, but I sure don't use it often. I guess one positive thing would be that you know the personnel know they are on camera, so your kids are safer from any kind of abuse I guess.

But today I decided to take a quick look to see what they were up to. It happened to be rest/nap time, and Sarah's mattress was smack in the middle of the camera, so I watched her for a bit. They are just so cute! She and her best friend was talking, and this other girl was walking around tucking everyone in.

They are having an Easter egg hunt in school today, and then we are going to the county's BIG egg hunt on Saturday. Plus she will get her Easter basket on Sunday... Lots of candy! At least I try to make the basket a bit healthier and put more toys rather than just candy in there...

I am waiting for the delivery of my two new storage benches, they are being delivered today, can't wait!

Just can't let me be...

I am so happy to have had what turned out to be a very life altering surgery this past fall. My life is so much better for it! So nice not to have to battle with Ulcerative Colitis after 20 years...

But as you might now, I have several auto immune diseases. The main one being lupus (SLE). Lupus is simply put a disease that attacks your own immune system. Due to the lupus I have had inflammation in many, many places all over my body. To name a few, my thyroid, my joints (all over), a nerve in my left foot, in blood vessels in my legs, in the lining of my bladder (this is now chronic), in my eyes, in my mouth, in my nose, on my cervix, in the lining around my lungs, in the nerves in my face, in my salivary glands, in my skin, etc etc.

I still feel pretty lucky, it could be a lot worse. Lupus is usually only fatal when you get inflammation in your brain, or when the kidneys are severely involved. I am hoping that never happen! They don't know what causes lupus, but I have my theories. After all, we humans are still wired to live lives much simpler than what we do. Our immune systems are not meant to handle the bombardment of different chemicals, handling all the processed food that we eat, or withstand all the outside pollutants that our modern lives actually produces. Maybe some people's just have a genetic defect that makes them extra sensitive. But just look at the huge amount of auto immune disease all over the world! I can't imagine these diseases were this abundant 500 years ago, even 100 years ago. Asthma and allergies are two that immediately come to mind.

Anyway. I have it. There is no cure, I have to live with it. I have been keeping mental notes of anything out of the ordinary going on with my body since my surgery. After all, I am not taking any medicine (except my thyroid meds which I have to take every day). I used to be on all kinds of different immune suppressants, and when it was really bad, the dreaded prednisone. My body has been clean now for a while. Unfortunately I have noticed the lupus stirring a bit the last few weeks. It is all joint pain, started out in the hands, then the feet, yesterday my knees were killing me. It seems to be mostly a morning and night problem, but it is no fun feeling like a 90 year old.
At my last visit in December at my excellent rheumatologist's office I told him I want to hold off as long as possible before going back on any kind of medicines. I want my body to be able to reset itself after the life changing surgery, so I can get a true idea of what is going on. So I will wait until June and see how the situation is then.

It just saddens me a bit that this resurgence of joint pain is taking away from the high I am on now, the joy of being healthy. If you are a regular, healthy person you probably take everyday health for granted. Don't. It is a very precious thing!

Everything braking!

It seems like several often used electronic devices in our house have decided to brake down on us at the same time!

First the TV started showing signs of being on its last leg, but still working...

Then my trusty old digital camera went on the fritz...

Our DVD player has been a faithful work horse since 2002, playing both Swedish and US DVDs without complaining. But it is ready for retirement; last night it decided to impose maximum stress, randomly stopping the movie in the middle of the best parts, its display going black, not wanting to load a DVD, telling us there is no DVD in the player even though we try over and over... With movies that work great on the computer or the portable DVD player...

These devices are all old. They all need to be replaced. I already have my dream HDTV picked out, a nice shiny Philip's. But my wallet is not approving that purchase just yet. And I want to research my camera purchase throughly before I make a decision.

But a new Philip's region free DVD player is on order. It just almost gave us both an anxiety attack last night. Since the writers' strike there is not much to see on regular TV, so we need a working DVD to relax a bit in front of the TV at night. The TV that is next in line to go bye bye...

Storage

Now when we are going to have new floors put in I have a great opportunity to clean out the house. It has to be emptied anyway, so why not spring clean?

Our house is not very big, about 1500 square feet (140 m²), so it can get cluttered fast. the one to blame in this area is usually Sarah, her toys have a tendency to just spread out everywhere. Plus, she uses the living room as her playroom.

We probably won't be living here that many more years, so we don't really want to put that much money into it. Our bedroom is a good point. We don't really have any furniture there, just our bed and two side tables. I have been using one of those foldable sports chairs as a place to hang clothes when I go to bed, not exactly very stylish. It has been like that for so long, and sometimes you just get blind to how your own place looks like.

Well, I decided it was time to do something, even if we can't get a brand new furniture set for the bedroom. Our linen closet in the hall way is overflowing as well. Most due to the down comforters that are only used seasonally. If I could only store them in a different place... but that is a very scarce commodity around here, storage space. A few days ago I happened to go by the furniture section at Target. They had these really great looking faux leather storage ottomans, rectangular shaped. They are pretty big at 32 inches long, so I could definitely store a ton of stuff in there.This morning I looked them up online. And when I saw that they were having a special with 15 % off and free shipping I decided to get a couple. So now we will have something nice looking and functional in our master bedroom.
Now, if I could just figure out a great way to tackle the lack of storage in the rest of the house...

Creatures of the night...

Last night when Ken and I (no scratch that), when I was watching TV and Ken was sleeping on the couch, I heard some odd sounds. It kind of sounded like rain, but different. Almost like fire crackling. I turned off the sound of the TV, but then the AC turned on. I waited until the AC shut off again. "Do you hear that?" I asked Ken. "No" he answered, but that was as effective as asking the wall, since he wasn't exactly aware...

It was a very eerie sound, kind of creepy. Finally I had to get up to see what the heck it was. It seemed to come from the corner over where the sliding glass doors are.

As soon as I reach that corner I saw what it was. On Sarah's art table in that corner we had placed her large butterfly habitat, and in it had for the last several weeks been an egg sack. This egg sack had now finally burst open! The habitat was shock full of hundreds of baby praying mantises! (Bönsyrsors).

Sooo coool! I kept watching as the little nymphs poured out of the egg sack, a pretty amazing thing to behold! I failed to excite the husband, he just kept on sleeping, missing the "birth" completely...

I know praying mantises are very ferocious carnivores, and if not fed they will turn on their own. The recommendation had been to free most of them and just keep a few. So I went outside in the dark and freed them, keeping about 5 for Sarah to see in the morning.

They were jumping all over the place! We didn't get the egg sack to keep them as pets, I actually got them for my garden, since they tend to stay within the area where they are born, and eat a lot of aphids and other harmful insects. So they are my pesticide system, since I don't want to use real pesticides.

This morning Sarah was delighted to see the jumping critters in the habitat, and we just let the last once go outside. They can grow up to 5 inches long when they are adults, but right now they just look like large mosquitoes. It was a lot of fun to see them, and I now know my hibiscus can be a bit safer too. A win win situation.

I took some cool pictures of the egg sack, but my camera has decided it is time to retire, so only a picture of one of the babies wanted to upload to my computer...

Baby Praying Mantis

An adult Praying Mantis

Sarah is home from school today, both she and I had a fever yesterday and still are. Nothing major it seems, just a bit of a temperature and coughing/congestion for her.

Easter Brunch

I have been calling around for days now trying to find a decent place for Easter Brunch. I am not willing to pay $98 per person(!) at the Ritz Carlton... Our go-to place is fully booked. Sigh...

Finally I fond a restaurant with reasonable prices. It doesn't hurt it is at a place we have been wanting to try anyway, and that they are on Bradenton Beach with a great view of the Gulf of Mexico! The Sun House Restaurant & Bar. Mission accomplished!

Spring Cleaning

I can tell when I work a lot, because I don't have much time to write much here! Yesterday I finally only had a few projects, so I decided Sarah and I needed a day of fun.

The days have lately been: wake up, go to school, come home, eat, get ready for bed , sleep. So she stayed home from preschool, and we took off to the big mall in Sarasota. Once there, we had a very nice lunch, just relaxing and chatting. After that we had tickets to go and see the new "Horton Hears a Who", which was very good, by the way. We have been reading Dr Seuss (click on the name to find out who he was in Swedish, most Americans are very familiar with this icon!) all week to get in the mood!

After the movie we did some shopping and then we headed for the indoor playground where Sarah played for almost 2 hours with two boys her age. They had a blast, and all that running around was just what she needed.

Tired but happy we then got some groceries and went home. It was raining pretty bad, but we had to take the dogs for a long walk, they had been home alone all day. So we wore our rain jackets and brought out the Bamse umbrella and went for a walk. We also brought some bread so we could feed the ducks. The dogs were what we call "rain crazy" when we got back from our almost 1 hour long walk. They ran around like they were on speed or something... Then we had a cozy night with home made salsa and chips, cuddling down in front of the TV and listening to the rain outside... A great day!

Today I am suppose to clean and do odds and ends around the house. I say suppose, because I am sure it will be mixed results on that. I have a couple of very good movies on my computer that are begging to be watched.

But I am also expecting two deliveries today. One is the dogs flea medication. I found a flea on Bob the other day, and if you see one, there are going to be more! Luckily he is almost naked on his belly, and his butt hair is very blond, and that is the area where fleas like to hang out. So they are easy to spot before they become a real problem! The thing with flea medication is that I don't use it regularly. I consider it a poison, and don't want it in my house. Plus, Bob has always been a sickly dog, so I don't want to put any harsh stuff on him unless I have to. And a flea on his butt means I have to. The stuff (I use Advantage) is pretty effective. But when I apply it I like the dogs to be freshly bathed and dry, and the entire house to be "flea sanitized" which means extensive vacuuming and washing of ALL blankets and other linens that might harbor fleas or their eggs... Luckily fleas don't bite humans unless they are desperate... so we are OK. But I think fleas are extremely disgusting!

Just listen to these dog flea facts:

A female flea can lay 30-40 eggs in just one day. When your pet gets fleas, eggs fall off the animal, wherever it goes in your house. In approximately three days, these eggs hatch into worm-like larvae that move away from light and downwards, usually deep in carpet pile. After 7-18 They spin a protective cocoon around themselves and develop into adults. Inside the cocoon they are almost impervious to insecticides. It takes between 5-14 days for fleas to develop inside the cocoon, after which they are triggered to hatch in response to vibration or the carbon dioxide exhaled by a passing host. But in the absence of a trigger, they can survive inside the cocoon for up to nine months.

Another reason why I hate carpet, it is just a big hiding place for fleas! And when you live in Florida fleas are a constant unfortunately... Here is a picture of the actual floor we chose, even if it is difficult to see the color like this...

Armstrong Colestone in Taupe

My SECOND delivery is of my highly anticipated Shark Steam Blaster. Now when we are getting all tile I want something better to clean our floors, and a steam mop sanitizes the floors with just water. And because it only uses water, the sealant on the grout won't be stripped. This particular model also comes with an array of attachments, so it have many uses, not just a floor mop. I found a great deal on it online! Normally it sells for $160, but you can found it on sale for about $100. I found one on iKitchen.com that cost me only $68 after free shipping and a 10 % off coupon! Not bad... For you living in Sweden I have good news, they have the same model in Sweden for about 897SEK.

So naturally I am expecting to be doing a lot of steaming all over the house today! It is suppose to be great to get into nooks and crannies you normally would have a difficult to reach. I can't wait to try it!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Städning

Får väl passa på och ta en bild som framtida bevis... Flickebarnet städar faktiskt av egen fri vilja för att hon inte vill att pappa ska behöva trampa på några leksaker när han kommer hem. Den omtanken kommer säkert att hålla i sig med åren!

Denna bild är dessutom ett praktexemplar på varför jag är enormt glad och förväntandes på att få nytt golv med start den 28 april... äckelpäckel till heltäckningsmatta!

Mycket jobb de senaste veckorna, och mer blir det denna vecka. Inte speciellt intressanta projekt enligt min mening, med det största projektet om "emissions chassis dynamometer" för en välkänd tysk biltillverkare spetsen... Yummy...

Windy Shopping

Today I was going to wear a new, swingy skirt I just got, but a quick walk with the dogs early this morning changed those plans... We have had some odd, stormy conditions here in Florida for a few days, last night there were some pretty severe lightning stuff going on. Today the wind has been sustained at around 34 miles per hour (15 sekundmeter).

So no skirt. I was up early and was showered and ready already at 8 AM. But I hung around and did some odds and ends for a while, and then Sarah and I headed down to the Sarasota Mall, which sounded like a good idea considering the windy weather. Finally there we shopped a bit at Victoria's Secret, great sale there, and a bunch of stuff at the Disney Store. After we were done we bought some food and drove over to Ken's office to have lunch. After all, it is tough to see him at all this time of year, he really is at the height of tax season right now.

Then home to some bookkeeping and a few movies. Sarah and I took the dogs for a long walk this evening, but it was pretty cold in the wind, so we kind of ended up jogging around the neighborhood. The dogs love it! Lucky for me they want to stop and sniff/pee on everything, my fitness is not exactly on top.. hrm...

So I am looking forward to a nice evening in. The husband just came home (hallelujah!) to work from home, and he came bearing gifts in the form of chocolate... And I have a stack of MI-5 DVDs from Netflix waiting after Sarah goes to bed. If you are looking for a good series to watch I can recommend the British MI-5. Great 1 hour episodes about the people who work at the British Intelligence service. Lots of action in this award winning series lovingly nicknamed "Spoofs" by the Brits.
Hope you are all having a nice, relaxing weekend too!

Picky eating

As I mentioned in my previous post, our daughter is an extremely picky eater. Before having a child myself I always rolled my eyes at the idea of a picky eater, after all, when I grew up you just had to eat what was served. Period. (I grew up with my grandparents, so tough luck if you didn't like it!)

It all started out great with Sarah. She was able to nurse for 11.5 months, which I believe personally is the best start one can have in life, even if I completely understand the women who chose not to nurse. With my self having so many health problems, I just wanted her to have the best start in life as I could give her. It did end up putting me in the hospital, but it was still worth it for me.

When I ended up in the hospital I had to go cold turkey on the nursing. Noooot fun! But Sarah took it like a champ! She started on regular milk with no problem, though she had some lactose intolerance at first.

When she had started solids around 6 months or so there were no problems. She loved all the different flavors I had her try, with the exception of the "mashed potato" baby food (it did taste like dirt, so I don't blame her a bit!)

She graduated to regular table food, no problem. I provided her with a variety of veggies and fruits, along with just regular food. Great! I love veggies myself, and I consider that to be a very important part of once diet.

Gradually she started to get finicky. Now we are at a point that I can make a very short list of what she WILL eat:

Whole grain bread with all natural peanut butter with added flax seed and 100 % fruit spread.
Wholegrain pancakes with light breakfast sausage or bacon with all natural maple syrup
Hot dogs with hot dog bread
Pizza with plain cheese
Baked all white meat chicken nuggets with ketchup
French fries
Apples (if peeled and cut up)
Pears (if peeled and cut up)
Grapes
Watermelon
Strawberries
Blueberries
Banana
Orange juice
Apple juice
Water
Milk
Yogurt
Chocolate milk
Commercial cereal with milk
Granola bars and other kinds of similar bars
Healthy whole grain and fruit snacks
Whole grain bread with strawberry cream cheese
Rice pudding
Chocolate pudding
Peanuts and cashews
Pretzels
Snack crackers
Smoothies (we'll come to this later...)

And except for sweets, that is it! And sometimes she will even refuse some of these things...

So not much to work with here... I try to make the few things she does like the healthier varieties, but if I make it too healthy I also risk putting her off to that particular food. She almost stopped eating hot dogs because I insisted to serve only turkey dogs...

I used to have a secret weapon. She used to love the smoothies I made. I could cram all kinds of good for her stuff in there. Usually silken tofu, yogurt or Kefir, mixed with a frozen banana, frozen fruit (even the kinds she normally wouldn't touch), a dash of orange juice, whirl it all up and a super healthy smoothie! In the beginning I was also able to add veggie powder, but she soon developed a distaste for that. Now she all of a sudden can't stand the texture of a home made smoothie. The tiny little flecks of fruit in there almost makes her gag. So no more home made smoothies...

Then I had the idea to check out the ready made smoothie selection at the store. I know I myself have tried a few that were all natural without any added crap like sugar and what not. I bought a few different kinds, all chock full of good for her fruit. Yep! The consistency was more like thick juice, so I finally had a way to add to her intake of fruit!

But what I really desperately want her to eat is more (or should I be correct: any) veggies. There was one smoothie that I myself had tried and liked. It was green like spinach, so she might not even want to try it... I bought a small bottle. Put the smoothie in a dark blue glass (so the yucky green color wouldn't show so much). She loved it! Oh my God she loved it! She now drinks two glasses of this a day, which gives her so many nutrients she otherwise would miss . Sure it might be expensive, a small bottle being about $2.50, but it is so worth it!

If you want to try this yummy fruit AND veggie drink, the name is Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness.

The ingredients are: Apple, Pineapple, Mango, Banana, Kiwi, Spirulina, Open Cell Chlorella, Lime, Broccoli, Brewed Green Tea, Spinach, Barley Grass, Wheat Grass, Blue-Green Algae, Echinacea, Odorless Garlic, Tamarind Puree, Dragon Fruit, Lemon, Jerusalem Artichoke and Nova Scotia Dulce. Plus a few added vitamins and minerals.

They also carry all kinds of other smoothie drinks as well as other products. I am just so happy to have found something that has veggies in it that she likes! A small miracle for sure :-)! Now I will continue hoping that her pediatrician is right, that she will grow out of this phase of her life and actually start eating more normally. Eventually...

Forgetful dad

As you might have figured out by now, we have one of the most finicky eaters I have ever encountered! She is very picky about what she will eat and not eat, so to make sure she eats lunch I always send one with her on the days she are in school for the entire day.

But we are having a hard time making daddy remember to bring it inside when he drops her off in the mornings, leaving her very hungry since she won't eat what they serve...

Sarah is pretty good at remembering her lunch herself, but she is barely 5, so we can't put that responsibility on her. So I came up with the simple solution to put a sticky note on Sarah with the word LUNCH on it. At least he will see that when they get out of the car and remember to bring her food in!

Hey, if it works...

Not so evil neighbor !

One of our neighbors is a real busybody. Her husband used to be the vice president of the home owners association, and their idea of a fun evening was to get a pen and paper and walk around in the neighborhood to find violations they could report. For real! I often saw them pointing and writing. And of course that put us on the spot, as we got reported on every little thing: please mow the yard, there are weeds in the back, please trim your trees, there are palm fronds hanging down etc etc. So not too surprisingly we are not that fond of these guys. Just little things like that all the time. Our other neighbors are wonderful, and they have lived here since the house was built, just like the "evil" neighbor, and they never speak to them either, since it is the same story there.

In fact, to know which neighbor Ken and I are talking we always refer to them as the "nice" and the "evil" neighbor...

So this morning when I was on my way back from walking the dogs I saw her walking towards me. I figured she was going to complain about our grass, since it is in the middle of tax season Ken just haven't had a chance to get to it, and with spring just waking everything up I know it needs a mowing...

So I just tried to hide under my hat, pretending not to see her, but she was on a course straight towards me! Oh boy, I was gonna get it now! She told me she had some bad news about her husband. (He has been sick on and off for a year or so). He had all of a sudden died this past Friday, while they were driving! They had just been to a doctor's appointment, and he felt great, in fact, they were even planning a vacation. They stopped to get some groceries, and in the car on the way home he said he felt a bit sick, and maybe they shouldn't have fish for dinner after all... She replied that they could freeze it, no problem. He then said he was feeling light headed, and she told him to put his head between his legs, but he just slumped together and died! Just like that! She raced back to the doctor's office since it was close by, and the ambulance was their ein no time, but there was nothing they could do to save him. They aren't sure yet what he died from, could be a number of things.

But oh boy do I feel bad! I gave the woman a big hug and just held her for a moment. After all, we are all just people, and I feel very bad for her. She has just lost her life companion! We talked for a long time and I tried to offer her as much solace as I could, but what can you really say? I also made sure she understands I am here if there is anything at all I can help her with, or if she just wants to talk. Both their families are up in Wisconsin, so she is all by herself until her sister comes down in a few days.

It sounds like she is at peace with what happened. They had been very restrictive in their lives lately due to his illness, so she felt he was in a happier place now.

Here I haven't directed a friendly thought towards this woman during the 4 years I have lived here, and then in an instance you get reminded that we are all just people. I will try not to let grumpy or mean or otherwise not-so-nice people get to me in the future.

Maybe if I treat them as I would like to be treated myself it will somehow rub off on them and they will soften up. Who knows?

The 2008 Florida Strawbery Festival

Yesterday we visited the annual Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL.

This is a great American farm fair with exhibits of agriculture, commerce, industry, livestock, fine arts, horticulture, and crafts. We liked seeing all the different kinds of cows, chickens and rabbits!

The fabric of American life is woven into this festival through ethnic traditions, social events, competitive contests, youth developmental programs, top-name entertainment, parades with scores of glorious floats, and high-stepping marching bands.
The festival dates back to 1930 when members of the newly organized Plant City Lions Club conceived the idea of an event to celebrate the bountiful harvest of the strawberries.

Over 5,000 acres of strawberries are planted annually in Florida. There are some 2,600 farms in Hillsborough County (where the festival takes place, just north east of where we live).

One of the main events of the Florida Strawberry Festival is the annual scholarship pageant for the selection and coronation of the Florida Strawberry Festival Queen. Sarah got to take a picture sitting on the Strawberry Throne!

Sarah on the Strawberry Throne

The weather was lovely if a bit hot. We also enjoyed the annual pig race which was a fun event to see!

The field where the pig races took place.

Sarah and I also went on a few of the many rides at the Festival's midway. We even tried one called the Ring of Fire that scared the crap out of me! I pulled a muscle trying to stay in the ride, scared we would fall to a certain death... Sarah wasn't too happy about the ride either. Too scary! But she insisted to try , so...

The Ring of Fire Ride

We also tried the mandatory Strawberry Shortcake, which pretty much is a piece of cake (sockerkaka) with lots of strawberries and then topped off with whipped cream. The portions were huge, the picture below shows how much was left of mine AFTER I was finished eating!

My Strawberry Shortcake after I was done with it! Just imagine how huge it was!

We did get a bit sunbruned after walking around in the sun for over three hours, but it was lots of fun! And I really enjoyed not having stomach problems one single time! Awesome

Sarah and I taking a break from all the walking

Floor galor!

I had an appointment this morning at 9:30 AM to get an estimate. I have been working like crazy all week, so the house looked, well, less than clean. I woke up early this morning and did a mad dash clean. Nothing motivates you more to clean than having strange people coming over!

Well, she isn't here yet. She called and said she is running late...

I hate waiting around for people. I am myself one of those who is always too early. A pet peeve if you want. Don't like people being late!

After the quote is over I am taking the dogs for a looong walk, then dashing over to the place where we are having the birthday party to get some paper work that needs to be filled out, and pay $25 for the rental of the pavilion. Then off to get some lunch, eating it at Ken's office in between some of his client meetings. Then Sarah and I are off to Target to find the perfect gift for one of her best friend's birthday. Sarah told me he really likes Spiderman and monsters, preferably zombies, so hopefully we can find something nice that fits that bill. Maybe a zombie Spiderman?

So, a busy day. But at least the house is clean, and no laundry to do. Always something, right?

The weather is beautiful, should be in the upper 70s today (close to 30C). Oh, and the citrus is in full bloom, which smells intoxicating!

Enjoy your weekend!