Home for a couple days...

Strep.
Need I say more?
Ok...double ear infection, too.
And then it was the weekend....

All it will take...

"All it will take for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing." (E. Burke)

Hi ho...Hi ho..

It's off to the doctor we go.
Throat still sore.
Still a fever.
Dr. appointment at 10:15.

Valentine's Day Idea...

We don't do Valentine's "gifts" really.
Last year we had breakfast and gave the kids paper hearts with things we love about them.
They year before I pulled out our "love tablecloth" and we had milkshakes after a fun supper.
So I was trying to think of something cute and fun for this year.
And I came across these at THIS ETSY SHOP.
Super cute, right?

Right.
But they are $8.00 without shipping.
And well, I kinda think that's outrageous.
And seriously, anyone can make something similar.
Mine, most definitely will not be this cute.
But it will have 10 things that I love about each of them.
And that's the part that matters.
I justs thought they were cute and I wanted to share.

She is going to be social.

I just find this funny, so I wanted to share.
Ayla still wears a pull-up to bed.
And I realized something today.
I always ask her to go get one out of the closet, but today I was right behind her as she marched into the closet to grab one.
I watched her from a distance because I kept hearing her say "Nope!" and then throw a pull-up on the floor.
As I got closer, I saw that she would take a pull-up out of the package and look at it.
If it looked like this one, she'd say "Nope!" and throw it down on the ground.

Until finally, she pulled this one out of the package and said, "Yep!" and handed it to me...

It's the little girl with a friend.
She wanted nothing to do with the little fairy by herself.
Nope!
She wanted to wear the one that had friends on it.
And we might be in trouble tomorrow night, because all the "friend" pull-ups are gone.
Too cute.

Then it was Thursday....

...and Lani stayed home sick again.
Here she is trying to smile for me.
But she really just feels lousy.

And what did I do today, you ask?
I did this...

Yes.
That is p90x.
And now I honestly can barely type this post.
Every inch of my body is in pain.
But apparently that is a good thing.
We shall see.
But honestly, all I wanted to do was drink coffee out of this cup in that place...

I think couples should go on long leisurely trips together, with no children every 6 months or so.
Wouldn't that be nice?
Please let Lani sleep a full night and be healthy in the morning.
Please.

Still sick...

Lani is still home today.
We debated heading to the doctor, but i think we'll hold out and watch for improvement today.
Still sore throat and fever.
Not fun.

Did you catch Oprah today?

It featured Food, Inc in the first half hour.
Alicia Silverstone lost me after that...but just thought you might be able to watch it and get a taste of what I was talking about when I mentioned that documentary.
Everyone should watch it (the documentary...no necessarily Oprah :)).
And like Oprah said...We should make our own decisions about what we eat and why, because we can. We live in America. We get that freedom.
And our choices drive the food industry. Change can happen if we demand it.
Ok...that's all. Back to regular programming...

moving...

well that was fun!
looks like either Virginia, Colorado, Kansas, Florida or Minnesota (sorry leah, i don't think minnesota would cure my winter blues!)
we'll have to think about it. :)

but today lani is home with a sore throat. and i have this pesky house to sell before any other decisions can be made!

staying in today...out of the cold. babying lani and snuggling ayla. it'll be a good day.

Tuesday

Dishwasher running.
Laundry all caught up.
Roast in the oven.
It's FREEZING outside.
And it's almost February...which means two things.
1. Our house will have been on the market for a full year on February 2nd...yeah. Don't really want to talk about it.
2. Every February Paul and I start scouring the internet for jobs NOT in Iowa. I get fed up. Maybe it's SADD. Maybe it's spring fever or cabin fever or some kind of fever. But either way, I honest to God start looking for places to move.
Any ideas?

geez...how lucky am i?!?

that i get to spend my days with this little girl.

been thinking about her a lot lately.
how she was not part of "our" plan.
and how i'm not sure how we got along without her in our family.
she's growing up quickly.
we read "I love you stinky face" yesterday.
I love that book!
ever since she's been running around yelling, "i lub you tinky bace!"
she's too much.
it's just the 2 of us during the day and i can't get enough of her.
(most days!)
i want to remember to soak up these days.
because even though it seems like the day we drop her off at school will never come, it will.
i've learned that.
it will come even if i don't blink.
so i've just been soaking her up.
hugging her more.
laughing with her more.
focusing on her more.
and it's been great.
she is great.

Brigg's been working out...

And Ayla, too...

The weekend

Saturday Paul decided to paint 2 of our basement walls. He used some sort of basement paint. And we found that basement paint is a bit more "fumey" than regular latex paint.
It was horrible.
I thought we were all going to die from the fumes. I had gone out for a girls night and while i was out Paul texted and said, "We're staying at your parents tonight." (they are out of town, so that worked well!)
So yesterday I went home to get some things and it was still awful in there. I grabbed a pan of leftover crescent chicken for us to eat for lunch. When I got it back to my parent and opened it up and took a bite, it literally tasted like paint fumes! It was that bad. (Paul did say that after they ate he had left the meal out on the counter for a bit before putting it in the fridge. So that's when it picked up the fumes. The rest of the food in the fridge is fine.)
So we stayed again last night at my parents. Went to put Brigg's clothes on that had been IN HIS DRESSER and they smelled of paint fumes. (his room is right above the room where the painting occured.)
So I have lots to deal with at home. I stopped by the house this morning after dropping the kids off at school and it is much improved. Hopefully by tonight it will be liveable.
Not fun.
Not excited to get home and tackle a dresser full of stinky clothes.
And note to self: Do not paint with basement paint in the middle of winter when your house should be closed up tight and heat running.
Lesson learned.

A girl and her popcorn

It's a Burback thing.
They love popcorn.
And Ayla..well...she's a Burback thru and thru.

We had a party.

I love Friday nights.
LOVE them.
There is just an excitement in the air when 3:30 approaches.
The kids get picked up from school and then Paul comes home.
And the weekend begins.
I felt like having a buffet supper.
So I took the kids shopping.
They got to pick out all kinds of junk.
Chips, dips, SODA...all of it.
And I grabbed some grapes and bananas and cucumbers and chick peas! :)

And Paul picked up DQ milkshakes.
Then we set up shop in the living room.

We rented G-Force.
And ate and ate and ate and ate.
And got a little bit silly.

It was a great start to the weekend.
I love Friday...

--

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
~Thomas à Kempis

First haircut

She did great.
It may have helped that it was done in our home by aunt Jennie!
(it was just a trim and you can hardly tell)

Is it possible...

...to lose 50 pounds in a month?
just curious.
because i want to.

A layer of ice...

Is covering everything.
I took the garbage out and nearly fell a minimum of 10 times.
The kids watched me from the window, laughing hysterically.
Because they are home. All day. Unexpected day off school.
I'm afraid we're going to be making up days until mid-July at this point!
We are stuck inside all day it looks.
Laundry, reading, coffee-drinking, indoor basketball playing kind of day...

No School=Fun Day

Yesterday was no school.
The kids were excited.

I was a little apprehensive.
There always seems to be more fighting on no school days.
So I made a full pot of coffee instead of half.

I finished up 1 batch of egg noodles and 1 batch of cookies,delivered them and we headed out.
We decided to make a full day of fun.
I intentionally left my camera at home so i wouldn't spend all my time behind it.
We at lunch at their favorite restaurant...Noodles and Company.
We played for a long time at Monkey Joes...and indoor playground consisting of all air structures.
We drove through and got a milkshake on the way home.
Ayla bent over in half and fell asleep.
And the big kids said it was the best day ever.

Days like those are work!
But we had a fun fun time.
I was able to completely focus on them.
They had good attitudes most of the day.
We laughed a lot.
I read on another blog yesterday morning"The days are long, but the years are short."
And I felt it in my heart.
It was a good good day.
Love them so much.

Yowza...

Just watched Inglorious Basterds.
Ummm...I don't know what I was expecting.
But it wasn't that!
When all was said and done, I looked at Paul and said "Now that sure leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling inside, doesn't it!"
I'm totally out of the loop. I didn't even know what this movie was about.
I covered my eyes for much of it.
And now I'm supposed to sleep?!?

Beautiful bread-baking Becky!!

Look at her.
Check out that form!
She's a natural!! :)

Becky arrived Friday morning just as the realtor was walking in 45 minutes early to show my house.
I had her meet me at my mom's.
Then we came back here and started working!!!
But don't get me wrong...it wasn't all work.
We laughed and vented and talked and giggled.
We talked about Haiti and Africa and our neighbors and our highschool teachers.
We discussed motherhood and marriage and friendship and God.
We chatted about babies and church and food and vacation.
And that was just in the first 45 minutes! :)

Truly, I LOVE spending time with Becky. And baking bread was a good excuse to get her here.
Ayla took a nice long nap while she was here and for most of the day it was just Becky and I and our talking.
Yeah, ther was lots of talking.
We knew our time together was short and we needed to cram in as much as possible in a few hours.
Plus make 5 loaves of bread, 5 bowls of salsa and 4 bowls of hummus!

Love you, Becky. Next time we're doing a full weekend!!
(oh, and i think bread baking requires more than one lesson to perfect it anyway!)

The deal...

Showing this morning.
They showed up IN my house WHILE I was still upstairs cleaning 45MINUTES EARLY.
That is WAY early. I'm sorry. I had lots left to do.
But I was super happy that they hadn't showed up a few minutes earlier to literally see me standing on the back of th couch, several feet off the ground, trying to fix a roller shade, and falling off face first, on top of my 2-year old.
Yeah.
Glad they didn't get here early enough to see that.
That would have been embarrassing.
(we are all ok, but seriously, it was fairly scary for a few minutes.)

Then Becky came!!! We had a bread baking class in my kitchen. SO fun!!
While it was rising, I made 5 batches of salsa and 4 batches of hummus.
I never once offered her food or drink, because, well, I am super hostess.
Finally, after several hours, she said, 'Um, I'm going to get a glass of water. Is that ok?'
Geez.
I'm awesome.

Said goodbye to Becky, picked up the kids, delivered some food and returned home to find an encouraging email from my realtor.
Showing went well.
Client looked at 7 houses and ours was in the top ones.
Client is gone all weekend for a wedding, but we will be hearing back possibly next week.
I can handle that.

Now...it's time for margaritas.
Have a great weekend.
I'll be nursing my aching back (from my fall of the couch...seriously....it hurt!) and delivering food!! :)"

Exhausted doesn't even cover it....

I'm getting old! I'm so tired, it's painful.
Trying to get this house ready to show has proven to be a gigantic task. It's nearly 11:30 and I'm nowhere near ready. But I'm so tired after staying up with Ayla last night that I think I'm going to have to go to bed and set my alarm to get up early and finish.
We certainly aren't getting our hopes up about the showing, but it's nice to have some activity. We've given up on looking for a place until we get an offer on ours. Which could easily mean we end up in an apartment somewhere. After a year of having this listed, that sounds fine with me! I'm hopeful that something perfect will fall into our lap. Ya know....several acres, one story, attached garage all for a great price. If you have the perfect place, email me at cassieburback at gmail dot com.
What?!
You don't think that's realistic?
Oh well.
It was worth a shot.
Apartment living sounds good to me. Sure would be nice if Paul could just call the landlord when problems come up!
So it's tomorrow at 10:30.
Lots to do between now and then. But at the top of my priority list is sleep.
Tomorrow is a new day.
Thank goodness.

Oh geez

Today things got fun. I put labels on all the bags of goodies. All the noodles are complete (and seriously, i'm not making them again for a long long time!) and the last of the cookie dough was done today. I delivered several orders this morning and loved it!
But I have to admit something. It has been a loooooong week. And last night Ayla didn't sleep at all. I have no idea why. She's a great sleeper. But she truly was up virtually ALL NIGHT. So was I. And today I was tired.
I put together several batches of salsa and hummus so I could get some full orders delivered today. I put fresh lime juice in my salsa and as I was squeezing the lime juice and smelling it all I could think was, "I just want to sit down and drink a margarita. Or two. And eat this salsa myself."
But my mind quickly squashed that idea. :)
Tired and loopy would not be good.
So I finally sat down to organize my handy dandy spreadsheet and the phone rang.
My realtor's office.
They want to show the house at 10:30 am tomorrow.
Yeah.
I know.
We haven't had a showing in MONTHS.
Literally.
So there will be no sitting down today. And definitely no margaritas today.
But rest assured that tomorrow night there WILL.
Off to clean that a crazy person for the next 9 hours....

Bowling

When the Stewart family got together to celebrate our Christmas, we went bowling one night.
So fun!
How cute is HE....

Everyone loved helping Ayla.
but I'm not sure she loved the help.

Tater did great and was quite the little jumper!

And Ayla...
Well...
I have too many photos of her to post.
She celebrated every time.
She was hilarious.

Haiti

*UPDATE: You can go HERE to help.

And THIS is why my heart is hurting.
MILLIONS displaced.
So horrible.

Wednesday...

I hope to finish up noodles and cookies today.
3 people convinced me to add orders for them yesterday, so I have a few more items to put on the list.
But this morning I did dishes and swept the flour covered floor.
And now I'm snuggling with my baby and finding my heart so very heavy for the people of Haiti today.
Sounds like complete devastation there.
I cannot imagine.

While they were drying...

I made the huge mistake of sitting down.
I grabbed a quick bowl of soup and started printing out the tags that are going on the bags of noodles.

But then I sat there and got comfy.
And didn't want to get back up.
I called a friend to try and procrastinate.
But the noodles are screaming my name.

These photos are only 1/3 of the noodles.
Ugh.
I have lots left.
So I'm slamming a cup of coffee and getting back to work.
I should have offered granola instead.....

a break

ayla just sat down for a pizza break.
up until a few minutes ago she had been happily helping with noodles.
(notice her apron...too cute!)
i know...it's kinda early for pizza, but we aren't worried about that today!

Ooooodles of Noooooodles

Yesterday was monster cookie dough.
Today it's noodles.
21 bags of noodles.

I'm using 3 eggs per bag of noodles.
So that's 63 eggs.

And that's a lot of noodles.
A lot.

But it's super fun seeing them drying.
HA!
Ayla has been helping me put them through the noodle cutter.
But now she has retired to coloring at the table.

This one may take more than one day.
That's a lot of noodles.
Oodles of noodles, actually.
:)