Congratulations Polk County Dominators

My girls just competed in the ISA World Series Tournament this past weekend for 12U fast-pitch softball where they won 3rd place. They fought hard, just missing their chance to go to the championship game by ONE point after two rounds of "Texas Tie-Breaker!"

These particular team is breaking records because they are the first minority softball team and they are FIERCE because they bring home a souvenir in every tournament they play!

Bree, my oldest is second to the left on the bottom row (NOT SMILING!!) and Ty, my second oldest is on the far right bottom row (WITH HAIR IN THE FACE!!).  Brishonne plays third a Tyshonne is a awesome outfielder playing in either left, right or center-field.

Congratulations to Anizya Vargas, Victoria Gonzalez, Bianey Jurado, Angelica Hernandez, Marisha Bullard, Jasmine Bradley, Brandice Boatwright and ShaQuoya Williams. Every girl plays a vital role in every game!!! On to the next girlzzzz!

Technical Difficulties with Blogger and My "Little Man!"

So now after this mishap with Blogger, I know I am addicted to blogging because I was pacing back and forth about why I can not get to my blog! Of course, I made it about me, but once I visited a couple other blogs, I felt better that it was not just me! Boo-hoo to Blogger. I am now in a love-hate relationship with it. One of my blogs got deleted, and I got  few things to share, but I am going to have to wait until Sunday, my girls have a basketball tourney we are getting ready for this weekend! But you gotta check out my little helper. Yes, I am starting him young...My baby!

He is 19mths old and his name is Da'Jon (Day-John)! We had a bit of a scare with him last night. He has been out of daycare all week with Tonsillitis, I did not find out until midweek when I took him to the doctor.

He stared out with fever Monday evening that just would never break after giving him Tylenol Monday and Tuesday. I made an appointment for him for Wednesday earlier this week, but that morning I took him to the emergency room with a fever of 103.9, even though his appointment was scheduled for 10:50 later that morning. He just was not acting like himself and he was so hot to the touch. He would only drink a little and not eat anything at all. I was scared! According to the ER doctor, I over reacted. I told him he is seven years younger than my last baby, so I am a little rusty. He just made me feel like I wasted my time. Nice right?!! :[

So come to find out later that morning he had Tonsillitis. Why the ER doctor did not catch it, I do not know! So middle finger is UP to him, but oh sooo... elegantly. So the doctor prescribed him a antibiotic. So Thursday he was fine and back to eating and acting like himself again. Well, that evening I gave him his dose of antibiotic, he had his bath-time, and he went right to sleep as normal. about 11:30pm, I noticed him tossing and turning and whining a bit. He kept it up about 15-20 min, but what I realized was that he was having spasms and not tossing and turning. He would twitch by shrugging his shoulders up to his ears, swiftly bringing his knees up to his just, and arching his back and flailing his left arm back all in one vulgar swift movement. He kept doing this every 30sec to a minute and he did this all night. We did not sleep, but he was really trying to sleep . Oh my gosh it was heartbreaking and scary. :(

My husband and I actually remembered going through this with my oldest daughter at about the same age. She actually ended up suffering from a few seizures up until she was six when she grew out of it. Well, I decided (especially after my earlier ER experience) to wait until this morning to take him back to the doctor. Being that he was fine up until after he had that last dose of medicine, we suspected it had something to do with that, so I did not give him his morning dose. He did keep up this spell until way after he was well awake, but I noticed after he started playing he stopped.  Well, I had called his doctor and we had an appointment for later this morning. So since we were so tired from the night before we took a mid-morning nap. He stared once again. Ugh it was so depressing. :{

We went to the doctor and he asked a million questions, of course, and he has referred him to a neurologist. By the time we did get to the doctor's office the spasms had stopped again, so he did not actually witness it. He did say if it happens again to go straight to the emergency room. When it comes to to antibiotic, he said it had nothing to do with it so continue it. I still have my reservations about it, so I am going to hold off for today! I know, I know, but what do I do?

He has been doing fine so far today and we have not had another episode even though we have been napping all afternoon and into the evening. I have been watching him like a hawk. I do not know how we will sleep tonight, but God willing, it will be a restful night for me and my little man!

UPDATE:
He has been doing just fine. We go to the neurologist on June 2nd. I still have not given him the antibiotic again. Thank you for all your sweet comments!

Guess what made it home?

I got my diaper bag with my camera safely returned! YEAH! Remember what happened? I received it on Friday. I have to say the manager at Applebee's took good care of me. See what I was missing:

I wish we could go back!  My nephew was with us that day in the orange trunks, my two sons, two daughters and my hubby! We had so much fun!

And hey.....if you are ever at Applebee's I recommend the Crispy Orange Chicken!

My Big Baby

My big baby, or should I say biggest baby, turns twelve today! Its the last year before she becomes an official teenager...(yikes)! They grow up sooo... fast!

Happy 12th birthday...I love you Brishonne!

You are such a good girl with a loving personality!

No matter what you do you make Mommy proud!

You always take such good care of your family!

You just keep on doing what you do and being who you are and I promise you will go very far!

More Paint On The Walls

We are making progress! We have painted two more rooms, my daughters rooms! Yeah...!! Now they did come with a few hurdles to get over which includes some spilled paint, holes in the walls, and one "I didn't want this color!"

 

When it came to the paint color, I asked them what they wanted. I really did not even have to ask, it was so predictable. Purple for Brishonne (my oldest at 11 going on 20) and pink for Tyshonne my (second oldest at 10 going on 6).

 

 

These are "my girls!" Love them soooo....much! They are a year and a half apart and could not be any more different. Bishonne is scratching the surface a "teenage drama queen!" And Tyshonne is just my "baby girl," because she has not quite come into her age yet. I am not complaining though, because I am in no hurry for them to grow up at all.

 

It took me a couple trips to Lowe's to sift through some paint chips because I wanted to find the right pink and the right purple for the house. I narrowed them down to four purples and three pinks.

 

 

 

So I bought my sample paints and did my squares. The purple came easy! Although I like the one on the far left, we went with the one on the far right, called Native Lilac by Valspar, for Brishonne. The pinks, not so easy. I got as far as getting the first stroke of the third paint color on the wall and I could not tell the difference between the second and third color.  I thought I got the samples mixed up. Brishonne, thoughtfully, said, "let's just paint all three squares over again," to make sure I didn't mix them up. She then, helpfully, proceeded to grab all three sample containers and splash. Pink paint went everywhere! All over the carpet, her, and the back of my legs. So after a big clean-up, I found out that the two paints are similar when wet. Too bad I could not find that out before all of that. I am not too worried about it because I am replacing the carpet anyways. After all of that we chose the lighter of the three called Irish Rose.

 

 

 

So the paint when on the walls. I was a little afraid after seeing how neon the pink was, especially after going through so many chips to avoid exactly that. But about the holes in the walls...this is one of my pet peeves with my "triple B threat" builder home (Blah, Boring, Builder-Grade). Our dang-on door stoppers is filed under builder grade.

When I first saw them I loved them because they were not the old fashioned ones that stick out of the wall and become a pain in the you know what to vacuum around. They sit on the top of the door hinge behind the doors, so they are hidden. After a few days in the house they were not so lovable. They would get out of place and stop working. We had to keep manipulating them every time we heard the door handle bang the wall, especially int he kids rooms. Eventually we got holes in the walls in all the kids rooms. They even penetrated the doors in Brishonne's room.

But we found the greatest thing at Lowe's. A door stopper wall protector that can be painted. It is so great that we have them everywhere now. Even in the unpainted rooms. This is one of the greatest inventions and I bet if I do some research a home renovator created it.

So here are the finished rooms. Like I said before I was little worried about the pink being so neon, but once the trim paint went on it was fine. Tyshonne got home and griped a little, okay alot, because she said she wanted the darker pink. Her words verbatim were, "that is not the color I chose...I didn't want this color!" Demanding little girl! She was find after sleeping on it. For the ceilings, I went with the same paint in the hallway and in the main living areas. I plan to do some stenciling eventually, but that's down the road.

I will leave you with... some to-dos for the girls rooms:

1. Put in closet organizers
2. Replace the carpet
3. Add ceiling fans (functionality only because it does get warm in there rooms)
4. Add window treatments
5. Create furniture plan (this will serve as my purchasing guide)

Sweets For My Sweets...

Today in my Seven Days of Valentines I prepared my family a delicious meal with love. In Sandra Lee fashion, I kept it smart, simple and semi-homemade! On the menu was a whole baked chicken with potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, and onion. This dish was served with a side of rolls and caeser salad with a twist. For dessert I whipped up some brownies sprinkled with powdered sugar.

As much as I love cooking I never really get a chance to cook from scratch or as homemade fresh as I would like to. My ideal dinner would start at the market and end at the dinner table all in one day. But thanks to things like bagged lettuce, frozen rolls, and boxed brownie mix I am able to get as close to it as possible.

Whole Baked Chicken

I start by seasoning the chicken and cutting up my vegetables. In a matter of five minutes its in the oven and ready to serve after about 45min.



Bake and Serve Dinner Rolls

These rolls are a big hit with my kids and my husband. They are frozen dough balls that you pop into a muffin pan 3 hours before you put them in the oven. I take them out as soon as I get home.

Caeser Salad With a Twist

I buy the romaine hearts in a bag from Publix. They come as two, which one heart makes one salad. I add fancy shredded parmesan cheese, feta cheese, bacon bits, and croutons.

Brownies Sprinkled With Powdered
Sugar

I used decadent boxed brownie mix with walnuts by Duncan Hines. Instead of water (which the recipe calls for) I always use milk. Its just something I adopted from my grandmother. I use the cake like recipe. I top it off by sprinkling powdered sugar over the top of them.

So this was just another small gesture of love for my family! They loved it and they loved me for especially the dessert!