10 Year Old Friend Party

We've told Mica that this is his last friend birthday party. Maybe he can have a friend over for an evening of fun. We're feeling done with full blown parties. 

I have a pretty close net family with nephews my boy's ages, and we have a birthday party always with them.

Mica wanted to take his friends to see Ant-Man. 

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I could have cared less to see that movie. I'm feeling about as done with superhero movies as I am throwing birthday parties. I'm such a stick in the mud! 

Dad was the lucky one that got to take 2 girls and 4 boys to the theater. He ended up spending way more on popcorn and drinks then he did on movie tickets. Mica said to all the kids, "Bring your own money if you want anything to eat, or drink." We had to scold him about that one. When just our family goes to the theater, we fill up ahead of time to avoid the cost of all the snacks. For a birthday party that's not what you say to guests. It was kind of funny though.

I took Isaak to the Lowes Clinic, and to run some errands. Then I got lunch prepared for all those kids. 

1 kid has a sister that asks to come to everything, and 1 other kid has a whole family that shows up to everything. Thankfully that didn't happen this time. I'm not trying to sound rude. I know it appears that I am. It's just that I want my boys to develop friendships with who they choose to develop friendships with. I even took Isaak out of the equation, so Mica could be with just his friends. 

Travis said it all went smooth, except for 1 thing. A girl decided on her own to go get more popcorn without telling Travis. YIKES! It took going in and out of the theater twice to find her. He was nervous. She was found. He told her to let him know if she was leaving to go to the bathroom, or whatever. He just needed to know! Then he could stand between the theater, and wherever she went.

Food was ready when they got back. I had to get a special pizza for a girl that was allergic to tomatoes. Get this? She didn't eat the special pizza either. 

We had our rare soda that we never drink. 

Last year I said, "No presents please." This year I said nothing. Noting that kids are all about presents. Even the givers are excited about giving. That's good. 

I did have an inside chuckle when Mica's friend gave him a card with nothing written on it. One of his other friends said, "Um you're supposed to write on the card!" He replied with, "Well my mom didn't leave me with enough time." I said, "Thank you. I'm sure Mica loves the card!" 

The girls found Mica's dress up clothes amusing. One came out looking like Indiana Jones. The boys unfortunately found the boxing gloves and the Hulk Smash gloves. I don't care if my own boys fight with them. When you get other kids in on the scene that could get hurt - well that's when I worry. *Note to self - hide all boxing type gloves when any friends come over. HA 

Mica got a few Target gift cards, and cash from his Great Aunt Becky the week before. Sunday was a day of shopping. Dad made sure they each had a wallet. Isaak never spent his birthday money from May! It took awhile, and some deep cleaning to find their wallets. We found them. 

Busy Busy

You may have noticed it's been a few weeks since I've posted a featured band or artist on Saturday. I'm sorry. I actually have been creating a list of bands, and more to feature. The weekend before last was Mica's family party, and school had just started. This last week my nephew Emerson had spinal surgery, and Mica's friend party was on Saturday morning. 

I'll make this post about Emerson's surgery. I guess having a tethered spinal cord is pretty common. The surgery isn't supposed to be a big deal. To me any surgery where they have to put someone out is a big deal.

Most the time doctors catch a tethered spinal cord early. If a kid doesn't walk that's something they look into.

Well Emerson's body is complicated. With having Trisomy 18 they knew walking may not happen. When he was almost 4 they found out he has a tethered spinal cord.

Why they schedule him for surgery when school is beginning, and fall is about to happen is beyond me. I know why...all the doctors have to be there. It's when kids get colds. My nephew Elijah (his brother) is getting over a gigantic cold. I'm pretty sure he got it from Isaak. I thought Isaak just had a horse voice from the outdoor camp/allergies.

Moving on...Emerson had a lot more nerves connected to his spinal cord, which made it difficult to get them all off. It was like a maze for the doctors. They simply couldn't get all his nerves off his spinal cord. They'll see in time if the surgery helped, or not. 

They punctured his urethra, which made him bleed, and it hard to get his catheter out. 

He was in a lot of pain. That boy has a HUGE pain tolerance level. He had that pain cry throughout the first day after surgery.  It didn't help that he pretty much had to stay still in position.

I texted my sister to see how his pain level was that 2nd day after surgery? She texted back saying that they gave him 5x the amount of pain medication that he should have had! He wasn't feeling anything! Instead he was on a 20 minute watch, and the hospital had to call poison control. This is the best hospital in Omaha for kids. We have pretty good hospitals here.

We visited Emerson in the hospital. I visited first...

Travis visited second. My brother-in-law loved the guy time with Travis. I had to call to ask when he was leaving?

The boys stayed in the lobby area with 1 parent at a time. I didn't want them to A) Carry germs up there B) Get something up there. Plus Mica had to work on a speech to run for Student Council. We went outside the hospital lobby for part of the time, where it was quiet to work on his speech. It worked - except for the fact that Isaak was bouncing all over the place. Isaak's in the talking all the time, and never relaxing stage. He even sings all the time, which I swear I've never heard the boy sing much until this year.

 

Afterwards I dropped all my boys off at home. Then I went to the store to get stuff to make chili, and things for Mica's party. I prepared stuff to put in the crock pot for the morning. This all happened Thursday night after work. 

Friday morning I threw all the things in the crock pot to made chili to take to my sister's house for dinner. I think everyone at work was hungry for chili on Friday. I just had no choice, but to plug it in at work. I figured with that much stress my sister's family could use an already prepared meal. I know that's what I appreciated when we were busy with hospital things. 

Emerson was able to go home on Sunday.  They had trouble getting his catheter out. My sister had to get on the staff to get him out of there. In the end she had people apologizing. She's a trained nurse, so she knows what's up. Emerson was kicking happily in his car seat on his way home. He's feeling perkier.

Grizzly Grinder - Large 4 Piece Herb & Spice Grinder Review

Recently I decided to clean out my spice and herb rack. I had a lot of Whole Cloves, a ton of Dried Ginger Pieces, Sesame Seeds, Oregano and Lemon Grass Pieces. My husband makes fun of me for getting too much of this, and that. The bag of Sesame Seeds were from him.

I got out my new Grizzly Grinder. It's a large 4 piece herb and spice grinder. They say it's large, but it really doesn't take up a lot of room in the cupboard. It has 4 pieces that fit together.

All the pieces screw on together to store nicely. It's 2.5 inches wide, which makes it a great size for traveling. It can easily fit in a pocket or purse.

 

About the Grizzly Grinder:

• 50 powerful diamond shaped teeth and 25 filtering holes for flawless grinding.

• 4- piece grinder with stainless steel mesh screen that does an amazing job at filtering pollen.

• Free pollen scrapper tool included for easy pollen collection.

• Easy to clean with a drop of soap and warm water. Hand wash and air dry is recommended.

• Made from premium quality zinc alloy material.   

• It's on great sale. Usually it's $49.95, but right now it's $21.95. That's a great deal since the competitor products are $50 and up.

Since fall is right around the corner I made Pumpkin Pie Spice and Allspice with the plethora of Cloves and Ginger. I was out Pumpkin Pie Spice and Allspice. During this time of year I use a lot of them. The spices ground down really well using the Grizzly Grinder.

Pumpkin Pie Spice:

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Allspice:

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

I'll leave the Sesame Seeds as is. I'll make Protein Bites with them. 

I ground down some Oregano. We grow our own Oregano, so we always have a lot of that! You can see how well the Grizzly Grinder ground up the Oregano. Here's before and after pictures. Keep in mind that I had already ground up the Oregano with a food processor. The food processor was a great start, but didn't do the job that the Grizzly Grinder did!

Before and After:

I ground the Lemon Grass down to. I'm new to the Lemon Grass world. I really haven't used it. Any ideas as to what to use it for? I'm open to suggestions. So far I ground up about a Tablespoon and a 1/2 to put in Popsicles. Summer isn't over with yet. 

Popsicles:

2 Nectarines
1 - 8 once glass of Dandelion Root Tea
1 and 1/2 Tablespoon of ground Lemon Grass
1 Tablespoon of Honey

Add all the ingredients to the blender, and pour them into Popsicle molds.



The Grizzly Grinder did get the Lemon Grass ground down finer. That stuff is a tough grass, so it's harder to grind down super fine. 

Before and After:

So far I'm really impressed with the Grizzly Grinder! I'm Considering this the last grinder I will ever buy! Do you have a Herb and Spice Grinder?

 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Random Tid Bits

1. I'm hooked on the show Dexter. Have you ever watched it? It's sick, and twisted. I always watch it before bed, which is probably a bad idea. It took a season to get Travis into it. He doesn't like CSI type shows as much as I do. Now he's hooked.





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2. I had a first year student tell me that her mother told her the night before that she has breast cancer. I responded with, "That's not an easy thing to hear about. If you need to leave the room for any reason while I'm in lecture please feel free to." It's hard enough to leave to go to college, get out on your own for the 1st time, and then hear that. At that age they take burdens on their shoulder like they solely own it. 


3. Isaak has been a singer lately. The boy has never been into singing. Lately he sings and sings. It was getting on my nerves last night. I was getting ready to yell out, "Isaak...can you stop it!" Then I stopped myself and yelled you, "Isaak.." He said, "What?" I said, "I love your singing voice." I should get mad at someone for singing. That's just silly on my part. It was that spot in the day when I was just feeling done.


4. I won a membership to the zoo for the year. We went this last weekend. Our zoo has been rated #1 in the world, so it's good that we go there. Right? They are in the middle of building a whole new section. You really can't get through it all in 1 day that's how much there is to see. I took a lot of pictures, but will get to that this weekend, or next week. I'll give you a tour of our zoo as we go.
   
   
   
   
   
    
   We parked, and didn't pay attention to where we parked. I was honking in the air trying to find our car. We finally found it. 


5. My nephew Emerson had surgery this week. He has a tethered spinal cord. The spinal cord is attached to other things when it shouldn't be. The doctors freed it up as much as they could. He had a lot of nerves hitting it. Little man is in a lot of pain. He has to lay down on his back for 2 days. I just feel for him. :(  

The day before surgery

He doesn't look so happy now.

 

 

Hummel Day Camp

I just realized that I never put up pictures of Hummel Day Camp's last day. 

The bully on the bus never bothered the boys again. He doesn't go to the boy's school, so we're good with that. 

Always on the last day they have the parents out, and the kids do skits, songs, and just have fun. 

I could tell Isaak was having a blast!

Mica was too far away to get a good photo of. 

My nephew Edison was right by my side. I'm sure my sister loved that I was luring him in to play with me by sticking out my own tongue. Then he started doing it to.

Their main camp song:

Afterwards everyone scurries to their camp site to get an award. I went to Isaak's, Travis went to Mica's, then we met up afterwards.

Isaak got The Happy Camper Award. Supposedly he made his leaders the most happy because he was always happy. It was so funny because he was such a grump each day after camp. He was probably wore out.

Mica got the Chalk it Up Award. They each draw pictures in the dirt. I guess Mica's became their camps logo. 
 

Both boys almost left their lunch bags at the camp. We found one in the lost and found, and Mica had to go back to his campsite to get his. He insisted that I had it. I insisted that I gave it back to him because it wasn't my job to hold his bag. I had enough things in my hands.

I'm really glad they did this camp at this time. It was one week before school started, and it got the boys prepared for more of a school schedule. In fact they were so wore out that they went to bed at 7:30 some nights.

Homemade Clif Bars

My husband's work is busy during the lunch hour. He either has to have lunch super early (10:30), or on the later side (1:30). I got some Clif Bars for him the first week of his job. After that I was on a search for a recipe to make my own. 
They are super easy to make! I know they don't cost over a $1 for 1 bar. 

I warmed up the peanut butter and the honey a bit to make it easier to stir. I did add Pumpkin Seeds, Chia Seeds and Mini Chocolate Chips to ours. You just stir everything together. The extras really are just extras. You don't have to add them, or you can. There is no baking required. If you are adding chocolate chips put them in last to give the honey and nut butter a chance to cool, so they don't melt. Put freezer paper down in a 9x9 pan, or make a double batch if you are using a 9x12 pan. Put the mixture in. I kept wetting my finger tips to help pat it down in the pan. The mixture is sticky like rice crispy treat would be. Set the pan in the refrigerator until they have cooled a bit. Cut them into bars, and eat. They ended up being really good. The great thing is that you can make them different each and every time. 

Mica, Travis and I all really liked them. Isaak's not a fan of any dried fruit, and wouldn't give them much of a chance. 

Adhesive Vinyl Sheets by Angel Crafts Review

I found a new art medium I love. It's 6x12 Adhesive Vinyl Sheets made by Angel Crafts.

I've been wanting to try vinyl sheets, but never really knew where to get them. I love this set because of the color variety. They send 35 sheets in a pack + 5 free sheets.

35 Gloss Colors Consist of (I'm grouping them in like colors): 

• Whites: Gloss White, Matte White
• Blacks: Matte Black, Gloss Black, Flat Black
• Grey and Silver: Silver, Medium Grey
• Brown, Gold and Beige: Brown, Gold, Beige
• Reds: Tomato Red, Wild Cardinal Red, Poppy Red
• Yellows and Oranges: Sunbeam Yellow, Sunflower, Matte Yellow, Tangerine
• Greens: Kelly Green, Forest Green, Dark Green, Lime Green
• Blues: Blue, Plum, Azure Blue, Teal, Olympic Blue, Sapphire Blue, Peacock
• Reds and Pinks: Red, Burgundy, Magenta, Fiesta Pink
• Purples: Violet, Royal Purple, Lavender 

Yellow to Red Orange

Pink to Red to Dark Red

Light Green to Dark Green

Light Blue to Dark Blue

Light Purple to Blue Purple

The Neutrals

I debated what to do with the vinyl. I thought about making a stencil for a trunk I have. The motivation just wasn't there for that project right now. I've been in more of a painting mood lately. 

I decided to make a sea turtle with a sandcastle coming out of it's shell. I'm not 100% sure I'm done just yet. I think I may want to add baby turtles in the background. Any dark spots you see on the turtle is cut out vinyl. It stuck well. I was able to do slight paint washes over the spots, which I happened to love.

I also used: 

• Paper punches, which may in the future be vinyl punches for me
• Tooth Picks cut down
• Rubber Spanish moss
• Acrylic Paint
• Matte Medium
• Pumice Medium
• Sand 
• Black Sharpie

I am so happy with how the vinyl on the turtle just pops! It was so easy to cut. I used a small sewing scissors to cut it. I loved how it stuck it's self to the surface. I'm so used to putting a clear paint medium down to hold stuff down. I didn't have to do that. It saved time because I didn't have to wait for anything to dry.

It's $16.95 for the set of 40 vinyl sheets. I love all the colors they sent. You can use this for other things like Home Decor, Signs, Letters, Banners, Striping, Decals, Window Graphics, Tiles, and so much more! 

What would you use this vinyl for? Any ideas? 

 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

 

Organically Grown Vanilla Bean Powder Review

I simply love the taste of vanilla! I always add more extract than recipes call for. Recently I got  Organically Grown Vanilla Bean Powder to review.

It comes in a 4.23 ounce bag:

I've used a lot already, but here's a look inside the bag: 

What is Ground Vanilla Bean Used For? 

• Ground Vanilla Bean is most used for culinary purposes, it gives desserts and baking goods rich and creamy flavor. I plan on using it in fall breads. I often make pumpkin and banana bread to stock in the deep freezer during the fall. It can be used as a substitute for vanilla extract in many recipes.

• Vanilla is perfect to enrich the taste of coffee by adding a teaspoon to the ground coffee before brewing.

• It's used a lot in DIY gifts and Christmas presents.

• It can be used in home-made bug repellents against mosquitoes.

• Often used in cosmetics due to its pleasant scent and antioxidant contents that help fight off free radicals. Vanilla possesses anti-inflammatory properties that help to soothe inflamed areas of the skin.

• Smelling it in is wonderful. I have allergies, and can barely smell. I could smell it every time I've used it.

So far I've only used it in green smoothies. I know many people are turned off by the green. I promise it didn't taste like spinach. It tasted like mango, banana, and vanilla. 

Smoothies for a family of 4:

• 1 cup of spinach leaves
• 1 teaspoon of green superfood powder
• A scoop of Vanilla Bean Powder
• 1 cup of frozen mango pieces
• 2 bananas
• 1 cup of ice
• Mango juice (amount depends on how thick you like it)

Benefits of Sunny Day Organics' Ground Vanilla Bean:

• Vanilla Bean is high in potassium. Potassium is important for cell and body fluids that help control blood pressure and hear rate.

• Vanilla Bean is high in iron. Iron is important for red blood cell production.

• Vanilla Bean is high in manganese and copper. Manganese and copper are co-factors for the antioxidant enzyme. 

• According to USDA, vanilla bean is in the top 10 antioxidant foods. 

• Antibacterial properties that help reduce skin infections and encourage wound healing. It can reduce bacteria that cause acne. With Mica and Isaak's skin issues I'm totally excited about this product!

• It has relaxing properties. 

 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.