Mouth Watering Monday (and a sweet potato update)

So I am getting a jump on my mouth watering Monday here, but we just had this for dinner tonight and it was YUMMMM-AY. Plus I really don’t want to be on tomorrow very much.

 My mother in law gave me a recipe several years ago for her chili. She made it when she came to visit us in Missouri and I later called her and asked for the recipe. I was slightly frustrated b/c her “recipe” was in her head and she tweaked it every time she made it. For a new “cook” like me, that was hard to do. But over the years I have learned to tweak it myself and I no longer use a referrence for it. It’s so simple and easy, and tweaking it to fit your cooking mood is fun! Enjoy!

1-2lbs of hamburger

packet of taco seasoning

two cans of petite diced tomatoes (sometimes I use the cans with onions and peppers in them)

one can of black beans

one can of kidney beans

one can of a white bean (garbanzo, navy, great northern…take your pic)

*sometimes I put in a can of corn too, depends on my mood

two small cans of tomato sauce

one small diced onion

one tablespoon chopped garlic (or garlic seasoning, but real is better)

Seasonings: cumin, paprika, onion (if you don’t use real), garlic (if you don’t use real), cayenne pepper. Just season to taste. Jake likes spicy and so do I so if it’s just us I use a lot of cayenne. For parties I make two crocks, one mild, one hot.

In a skillet brown the hamburger meat, onions, and garlic. When thoroughly cooked, add in taco seasoning DRY (do not add water). Mix around and once fully cooked, add meat to crock pot. Add in beans and tomatoes and tomato sauce. If you want thicker chili, use tomato paste instead of sauce. Cook in crockpot on high for 3-4 hours. If you want it to simmer all day, just put it on low. Makes the house yummy smelly too!

 To eat with dinner I either make cornbread or quesadillas. I know, totally opposite side dishes. With the cornbread I put the cornbread in a bowl and pour chili over it. With the quesadillas I put the chili in a bowl, top with sour cream and cheese, and dip quesadilla triangles in it. Soooo gooooooood.

Ya gotta try this dinner! It’s so yummy! And if you have more hamburger meat than you need for the chili, since it is already seasoned, you can save it for tacos another night. Let me know if you try it!

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So I said I would update about finding out about Owen’s allergy to sweet potatoes. Now mind you, a doctor didn’t tell me this. In fact, they weren’t too interested in the fact that I had JUST fed him sweet potatoes an hour before his episode. I googled “infant allergy to sweet potatoes” and came up with a lot of the same scenarios. Check them out for yourself. From now on, I am going to play it safe and NOT give Owen any sweet potatoes. Poor kid, won’t ever know of the yummy goodness of sweet potato pie! Here are the sites:

Click Here (scroll down a bit on this one)

and here

and here too

and don’t forget this one (more for allergy resource)

Okay that’s enough for now. If you google other combinations of “sweet potatoes, allergy, vomitting, infant” stuff like that, you get more sites. One site I found (I’ll have to find it again) showed a controlled study in a small group of infants that had a sweet potato allergy. So, I think we’ll go with “sweet potato allergy” just to be safe.

Now go make some chili!

God Laughs

My sister in law has this saying, “make plans and hear God laugh” and she is soooo right.

Kim emailed everyone from our link group asking for volunteers to host this weekend. I volunteered.

My sister in law is coming this tuesday to help me with stuff for moving. She is an organizational freak and I am lucky she is so willing to help me, considering she lives in Portland.

This morning, the boys woke up with green goo. GREEN GOO. Their noses look like they had green play doh shoved up there. Totally gross. Oh, and Owen is coughing a bit. Oh, AND he threw up last night. Projectile vomit across the couch. For about an hour or so afterwards I was in a complete panic waiting for “the other shoe to drop.” It never did, thank God. Owen remained bubbly and happy and NOT passed out.

God is laughing at my plans I think. I had to cancel on link group and I emailed my sister in law telling her about the boys. If they are sick she can’t come b/c she has a 3yo and my brother in law is self employed so he REALLY can’t get sick.

I am really really hoping and praying they are not sick come Monday night/Tuesday morning.

I’m frustrated today.

I had a dream about moving last night. We moved into the most narrow house ever. It was a nice house, but it was narrow. Weird. Oh, and we made the drive in two days. That was sweet.

God, please don’t laugh at our plans to move.

Oh and something really great: Owen is crawling. The kid is on the move!! It’s amazing how fast they pick this stuff up. He is better today than he was yesterday. Every day he gets better and better. I love it.

I love my kids. I love watching them be creative. For Valentines I got them play doh sets. A play doh duffel bag of play doh stuff with cutters, and a pasta maker, and a roller. They each got one. And they each got a play doh tub. One tub is for picnic stuff and the other is for animals. They have played with those for HOURS. They love it. Especially Dylan. I thought I would not like them having play doh but they seem to be doing pretty well with it.

Today we are going to go through more stuff to take to the dump. I wish I could snap my fingers and have this done. I am seriosly contemplating moving into our trailer NOW and just coming to the house to do stuff for the move. That way what I get done stays done. I don’t know. That seems extreme. But it also would simplify things for me. If my sister in law (she does have a name btw, it’s Teresa haha) comes I think we’ll do that after she leaves actually. That is what we were going to do after the movers take all of our stuff anyway.

Okay, off to do something productive. I promised Sean I’d blog about the sweet potato allergy thing, so I will for sure be back this weekend with that. Check Sean out. He has a baby on the way.

My sneaky sneaky husband!

<—- See that? THAT was my early Valentines present tonight, along with matching earrings. A few days ago Jake asked if we were going to go out for Valentines Day and I said NO b/c for one, Teresa and Kambrie would probably (hopefully) be here and for two, we NEVER go out for Valentines Day. We don’t even celebrate it really. It’s more of an annoying “dating” holiday I think. So for some reason he is really pressing going out for V Day which is odd, so we agree to go AFTER the actual day, either the 15th or 16th. Better that way anyway, avoid the crowds. I hate crowds. So tonight the boys went to my moms to stay the night. We didn’t take them over there until about 8 b/c they took such LATE naps today. I normally wouldn’t have put them down so late (3:30) but we had planned on going to church tonight and I didn’t want them to be pills. Well, 5pm came around and they were STILL sleeping and I didn’t have the heart to wake them. So, we didn’t, and missed church. (sorry Deb! If you went)We can go in the morning. I am glad I didn’t wake them b/c Dylan slept until almost 6 and Aidan slept until almost 7!! Normally I do NOT like them to sleep that late, but they played hard today and hadn’t had a nap in two days. They needed it. So anyway, after we took them to moms around 8 I got in the shower b/c Jake insisted that we go out to eat since we were minus two boys. We kept Owen home with us. So, we go to Red Robin. Where the heck else would we go. I swear we should buy stock in that place! While we were sitting there, out of NOWHERE, Jake pulls this jewelry box from JCPenney out and and plops it down on the table and says “so, uh, I got a little somethin’ here” and he kind of says it under his breath. He cracks me up. heehee I just BEAM and stare at it. I got all excited and asked what it was for and he says….VALENTINE’S DAY! hahaha! I said “It’s not for another week” and he said “yeah but I wanted to give it to you ON that day, not after, so I’m giving it to you now” and I said “but it’s still not ON that day” and he said “I’d rather give it to you earlier than later” hahaha! He is so funny! So, there it is. My pretty pretty necklace and matching earrings. LUCKILY I hadn’t worn anything tonight. I just wore jeans and a long sleeve fitted black top so I was pretty bare and boring, but the necklace and earrings were the perfect touch! Thank you babe! I love them! oh yeah, and I love you too. heehee

<—- And this picture right here, that is how I ended my night. Isn’t he cute????? This would be Owen, who you all prayed for. Such a beautiful and healthy boy!!! By the way, his problem, he’s allergic to sweet potatoes. More on that later.

Have a great Sunday!

I think I should clarify….

….that blog before about vasovegal, I think I got carried away explaining that and just forgot to ALSO mention, that the other “cause” they are thinking of was just pure dehydration, which is also a trigger. They aren’t saying yeah or neigh on the vasovegal. So at this point, we just don’t know, but are so thankful he is okay now.
Just thought I’d clarify!

Vaso WHAT??

Okay so we went to the Dr’s this morning and they really had no more answers for me at all. Dr. Hough was just stumped as to what it could have been. He was very happy that Owen was laughing and “talking” and seemed much more his normal self. Basically, we left with “well at least he’s fine now” kind of summation about the whole thing. I asked Dr. Hough about what his wife had told me yesterday (also a dr, obviously) about the vasovagel syncope and he said that is the only thing that comes to his mind as well. I have now had three pediatricians tell me that. So, I guess that is what we are going with, which really still doesn’t answer the question as to why he was vomiting. Here is a description of vasovagel syncope:

Vasovagal syncope is the most common type of fainting. There are a number of different syncope syndromes which all fall under the umbrella of vasovagal syncope. The common element among these conditions is the central mechanism leading to loss of consciousness. The differences among them are in the factors which trigger this mechanism.

Typical triggers for vasovagal syncope include:[1]
prolonged standing or upright sitting
stress
any painful or unpleasant stimuli, such as
giving a blood donation or watching someone give one
watching someone experience pain
hyperthermia, a prolonged exposure to heat
sudden onset of extreme emotions
hunger
nausea or vomiting
dehydration
urination (‘micturition syncope‘) or defecation (‘defecation syncope’)
swallowing (’swallowing syncope’)
coughing (‘cough syncope’)
abdominal straining or ‘bearing down’ (as in defecation)
random onsets due to nerve malfunctions
Pressing upon certain places on the throat, sinuses, and eyes.
High altitude

People with vasovagal syncope typically have recurrent episodes, usually when exposed to a specific trigger. The initial episode often occurs when the person is a teenager, then recurs in clusters throughout his or her life. Prior to losing consciousness, the individual frequently experiences a prodrome of symptoms such as lightheadedness, nausea, sweating, ringing in the ears, and visual disturbances. These last for at least a few seconds before consciousness is lost, which typically happens when the person is sitting up or standing. When they pass out, they fall down; and when in this position, effective blood flow to the brain is immediately restored, allowing the person to wake up.
The autonomic nervous system’s physiologic state (see below) leading to loss of consciousness may persist for several minutes, so:
if the person tries to sit or stand when they wake up, they may pass out again; and
the person may be nauseated, pale, and sweaty for several minutes after they wake up.

Vasovagal syncope is rarely life-threatening in itself.

So I guess that does answer the passing out/unconscience part of the whole ordeal, although he was “out” for nearly 30 minutes. As far as the vomiting, who knows, but I’ll surely never feed him sweet potatoes again!

Good things that came out of this:
Prayer. Lots and lots of prayer. Between our families, my myspace friends, and my blogspot blog, there was lots of prayer being lifted up for little Owen.
Faith. I had faith that God would take care of my baby and even though I knew that ultimately God could do whatever He wanted, whatever His will was for Owen, I had a peace that He would answer my prayers for a fully recovered and healthy baby….and HE HAS! It makes me choked up right now thinking about how awesome God is and how He gave me such peace.
Friends. I have awesome friends, and people I don’t even “know” in “real” life were rallying with prayer. Thank you so much!
Blogs are awesome too! haha!
Not that I didn’t already know it before, but it just really resonated in me how much I love my kids and how really, in an instant, you would trade places with them for anything. ANYTHING.

Off to lay down with my sleeping baby.

Back from the hospital with Owen!

Okay so we’re back and just a quick update…..Still not sure what was wrong with Owen. His rotavirus test came back negative and that was kind of the only strand the doctors were grasping. We go in tomorrow to see his regular doctor and we’ll go from there.

Tonight he is in good spirits and smiling and laughing and playing, THANK GOD. I am so thankful that he is okay but still wish we knew what it was that left my baby unconscious for nearly 30 minutes. Until we know more, I’ll still be worried about it happening again. Until then, the kid isn’t leaving my side! haha! He is still very sleepy and has slept a lot, poor guy has been through the ringer in the last 24 hours. I’ll get to all of the emails tomorrow after I talk more with the doctor.

Thank you so much for your concern and prayers. I was absolutely overwhelmed at the messages I received. Thank you all so very much. Now stop making me cry! Thanks to Brent and Tammy who instantly made their way down to the hospital to talk and pray with me and Owen. That was so unexpected and thoughtful! And to Cheryl who BARELY caught us as we were loading up to go! Thanks Cheryl for taking the time! And thanks to Tara who came and kept me company the rest of the night and brought us home from the hospital so Jake didn’t have to load up the boys!

Bran

Night at the ER with my baby

Just a quickie here….

Owen started throwing up last night (my exact timing is fuzzy) and then he became completely limp and unresponsive, his eyes were rolling around in his head and he could not make eye contact at all. Jake and my mom were both shaking him(more like jossling) and smacking his cheeks and all out shouting to wake him up. Meanwhile I was on the phone with 911, ambulance on the way.

Paramedics checked him out, couldn’t get him to respond either, wanted to take him in.As I stood there watching them with Owen, I swear to you my baby looked dead. NO COLOR, NO RESPONSE, NO NOTHING AT ALL. You have no idea what you will think of in times like that, and all I could think of was “Did I take enough pictures of him b/c if he goes, I don’t want to forget what he looks like. That is all I could think of as I stared at what looked like a dead baby. Even my mom said the same thing. The only one of us who didn’t think that was Jake and that is b/c he got to hold Owen and feel the teeny tiny breaths he was taking. I was shaking and crying and just thinking “How did this happen? He was FINE ABSOLUTELY FINE 30 minutes ago”
Jake and I rode in ambulance with him to RVMC. Owen responded a little on the ride there, opened his eyes. My mom stayed home with the other two.

God and I had a serious talk on the way to the hospital and my nerves calmed as I KNEW He would take care of my baby. Still I was scared and worried for my child, but I had a sense that God would not take Owen from me. Thank you God!

At RVMC they tried TWICE to get an IV in, TWICE to get a blood draw, and TWICE to get a urine sample through a cathetar. Thank God he responded to all of that with crying. His eyes were still very uncontrolled and he was wobbly.

Urine came back fine, chest Xray came back fine, blood came back with too high of a white blood cell count. Wanted to keep us overnight. I stayed overnight with Owen while Jake went home to be with the other boys and relieve my mom.

This morning they did another blood draw, and his count had only gone down a little and was still considered elevated. They want to keep us the rest of the day, and depending on the blood results of yet ANOTHER blood draw later today, we could either stay or go home. We don’t know. The doctors have NO IDEA why he basically became unconscience for a period of time. They are baffled, and worried.

Jake is there now with Owen, and his little helper Dylan. I came home with Aidan to take a quick shower and then I’ll head back up for the rest of the day. Just wanted to post.

Thank you to Kim for coming down to check on us. That meant more than you know!
Thanks to my mom for her help and to Jake’s parents for coming and checking on us as well, and for getting our truck to us.

If you felt like praying, that would be GREAT and muchly appreciated.

So sad how easily I am amused….

Tonight I was feeding Owen his rice cereal. I’ve been feeding this to him for a few days now and he’s not all that great at opening his mouth. He just smiles. That’s it….smiles and I try to slide the food right in. This has been a bit frustrating. Not nearly as bad as when Dylan was a baby…..the fact that he didn’t eat right away when we started foods sent me into a tearful fit. I just KNEW I’d have an anorexic baby. And truly, to this day, he is still my pickiest eater. Aidan, on the other hand, ate ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. There was nothing he wouldn’t eat. So now there’s Owen. He seems to like what I’m feeding him, he just won’t open his mouth. A perfect blend of Dylan and Aidan. We should have named him Daidan. Ha! Now there’s a name.

ANYWAY, (man I get sidetracked!) tonight Owen OPENED HIS MOUTH! I know. Ridiculously lame to get THISEXCITEDABOUTBUTIAM! I was clapping and laughing and saying “YEAH!!” over and over again. You would have thought the kid stood up and walked across the floor. I loved it. It sent such joy straight to my mommy heart. I couldn’t have been prouder.

So funny…….. I crack myself up.

Catch-Up

*YAWN* Will this kid EVER sleep more? I am feeling at my wits end. I told Jake this morning that I am not sure how much more of this NOT sleeping I can handle. I have resorted to drinking coffe with just half and half…. SO NOT ME. It’s helped keep my eyes open, but that’s about it.
It’s so nice outside today. I have been LOVING this summer. I absolutely hate HOT HOT HOT weather, so this year has been nice for me. I wish the boys would go outside today, but they don’t want to, and I am too tired to round them up to take them to the park. Dylan has been watching his Nick Jr. videos this morning. I am too tired to protest.
The other day we went to my friend Angela’s grandparents house for the afternoon. They have a big in-ground pool and Angela has a friend visiting from Germany named Nina. Nina takes GREAT pictures and she took a ton of the boys. They are sooooo good. I love them. Ange dropped them off yesterday morning when she was walking her dog and now I am trying to download them to an album. The boys had so much fun! Dylan mostly swam in the pool with Angela…Aidan was a bit apprehensive about it. I loved watching them though yesterday. They were having a blast! I was nervous though the whole time, even though I enjoyed hanging out and visiting. Angela and I MAYBE get together twice a year to visit so this was nice. I was nervous b/c of the pool (no fence around it) and b/c of the fish pond. Aidan was loving the pond and kept getting too close to it and he kept RUNNING towards the pool. Dylan ran by the pool once and I about lost my breath. They aren’t used to being around a pool like that so they didn’t understand why we kept jumping on them about it. At one point at the pond, Dylan teetered and I thought I would have a heart attack. While it is nice to visit and play around a pool, I am so glad we don’t have one b/c I would be on pins and needles all the time. Overall it was a great afternoon though. I am so glad we got to spend time up there with them and visit. Angela’s grandparents were home too and her mom and one of her brothers came up. They were like a second family to me growing up so it was so nice to catch up.
I just got off the phone with the nurse at the Ped’s office and they want me to give Owen a suppository! OMG! =O This should be fun. He hasn’t pooped in 2 weeks now. I just realized that this morning. I knew he hadn’t pooped in a while but I didn’t realize until today that it’s been two weeks already. Poor little fella.
I was supposed to go shopping with Mom yesterday for baby shower stuff but I decided to stay home instead and do NOTHING and not feel guilty about it. Trying not to feel guilty about it. I mean NOTHING too. I did not cleaning or anything. I just wanted to veg. Last night we went to the PHIL WICKHAM concert at church. It was a cool concert and I really liked the guy that sang before him. Jake liked him too. The girl that sang before him had such a pretty voice too. She was cute. Kacie said she was younger than us too….that surprised me. After the concert I signed up for this thing called “MOCHA CLUB”….. basically another one of those deals where you send money to this organization to help orphans in other countries. What got me was the story this guy told about…..that the number one cause of death for orphans in this one country (don’t remember which one) isn’t disease or starvation, it’s being eaten alive by hyennas b/c they have to sleep outside b/c the orphanage isn’t big enough. UGH. I was instantly sick and started crying thinking about my babies. I told Jake “we are signing up, end of discussion.” LOL You got to name your own “team” too (not sure why yet, I guess I’ll figure it out later) and I named it DAO. I thought that was appropriate. Dylan, Aidan, Owen. Anyway…..
I was excited to get out without ANY of the kids for a while. I needed a break. It’s funny b/c I feel like I need a break, but I LOVE doing nothing with them and just watching them be funny. I just love to LOOK at them. Even when we’re all grumpy.
Dylan was sitting with me on the couch while I fed Owen and he was watching Ruby and Max, a cartoon about bunnies and they were dressing Max up like a baby and Dylan said “we don’t have any babies HERE!” and I said “oh really, what is Owen?” and he said “Owen is a FAT baby!” AH HA HA HA!! heehee I couldn’t stop laughing.
Tonight we are going to the races with Mom. We’re taking Dylan and Aidan and leaving Owen with my grandma. I think the boys will like it. Mom is bringing McKenna too. Mom picked up ear muffler looking things for the kids to wear so the noise doesn’t hurt them. It was too loud for me at some points, not all, but enough so that I don’t want the boys to not be protected.
Tomorrow we are HOPEFULLY going to stop by Jake’s grandparents anniversary dinner and visit for a few and then head to our Link Group BBQ. They happen to be within a half hour of eachother and we’ve been planning the BBQ for over a week and we didn’t find out about the anniversary dinner until YESTERDAY! Sooo… let’s hope the boys’ nap times don’t run over or we will have to skip that altogether. I hate last minute notices. Throws the whole day off.
Other than that we NEED to find some time to squeek in some yard cleanup. I have got to get down to business this week for the baby shower. I still have a ton to do. TAMMY:IF YOU’RE READING THIS….ARE YOU AND KASS COMING?? Anyway, that is all we have planned for our “exciting” weekend. Not much. Now I need to go put away about 5 loads of folded laundry. blech.

Here is a picture of Owen in the outfit from today…only 6 weeks after the first time he wore it (pic of that in post below).