tuesday tidbits (ramblings...)

I can't believe it's the last day of July already. August is a big month for us. Stephen and Christopher both have birthdays in August and we will be saying goodbye to summer as college classes begin again.
I have enjoyed my summer SOO much. The month of July seemed to drag by, but I think that's because it was so hot and we didn't have use of our pool. We also had to deal with the death of Stephen's great-grandmother and grandfather during the month of July, so two of our weekend were spent traveling to Owasso to attend memorial services.

Another thing that we did in July was a "fish diet." I had the bright idea for us to stop eating meats, with the exception of fish, for four weeks. We also made an exception that one weekend day we would be allowed other meat. We are on the LAST week of this "diet" and I am SO proud of us for sticking to it. It wasn't really supposed to be a diet for us to lose weight (I haven't weighed myself recently so I don't know if I've lost any or not) but it was more for us to start eating a little healthier and eat out less. We've been very successful in both areas. We eat salads daily... and we usually have one vegetarian meal and one meal with fish every day. We've eaten mainly tilapia and salmon. One time I made fish tacos with cod (wasn't a huge fan of the cod; I would use a different fish next time) and we had tuna once or twice. We've also had lots of veggies, especially different types of beans.

This picture is blackened tilapia -- it was SOOO delicious. We ate it on a piece of bread with succotash. The whole meal was good!

On Saturdays we allow ourselves to have other types of meat. I don't think I could ever be a vegetarian. This past Saturday I had turkey with breakfast, beef for lunch, and chicken with dinner. Stephen made fun of me for not having any pork and asked me if his Adventist diet was rubbing off on me. UUM, nope. I still love my bacon and pepperoni, people. I will say that one day last week I wasn't feeling well and just didn't feel like cooking dinner, so I had Stephen bring home a mushroom and black olive pizza. I think this was the first time in almost four years of marriage that Stephen didn't bring home a pepperoni pizza. Ha!

Something else I have been doing in July is the C25K program. This is the fourth or fifth time I have started this program. Only one other time did I get past week 2... always quit for whatever reason. However, this past spring I started reading Mama Laughlin's blog and she has really inspired me to FINISH the program this time around. I've been doing it since mid-June. I have to spend more than the allotted three days on most weeks, but I'm doing it out there in the 90-100 degree heat and that's really all that matters. I prefer to run in the evening, even though its warmer than if I would get up and go at 6 in the morning. So I just try to wait until the late evening and run as the sun is setting. Last night it was 99 degrees and I did Week 5 Day 1. I was ridiculously sweaty when I got home!




And just because he's so cute ---


I think that's all my rambling for today. I still need to write several posts from the beginning of the summer, but I'm waiting on a new charging cord to come in for my laptop -- that's where all my pictures are and it's deader than a door nail right now. :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Brave

Last Saturday we had to go to Ft Smith to run some errands. It had been awhile since the three of us had been out of town together for a non-death related reason. Stephen needed to have his golf clubs re-gripped, which was going to take most of the day. We also needed to go to the pool store to find out what the next step was with our pool water. (Speaking of which, we swam last night for the first time since July 1! We can finally see the bottom of the pool! Yaay!) We still needed to kill a few hours, and I didn't really need to do any shopping...SO so we decided to go to the movies!

Stephen had been wanting to see the new Batman movie, Dark Knight Rises, but it wasn't exactly three-year-old friendly, PLUS it was almost three hours long. UM, no thank you very much. We decided that Stephen would watch his movie, and Christopher and I would go to see Brave.

This was Christopher's first experience at the movie theater. I explained to him before hand that we were going to watch a movie called Brave, and that it would be on a BIG tv, and that he had to act like a big boy or he would have to leave. We had to kill some time after Stephen's movie started and before ours started, so Christopher and I went to a party supply store to buy a few things for his birthday party, then we went to get some frozen yogurt.



We got to the movies about 15 minutes early. I really didn't think it would be that busy, but it was in a really small theater (maybe 30 or 35 seats total?) and there were a bunch of people there already. I think there were maybe 20-25 kids there. They were all being noisy and rowdy before the movie started and I was thinking that Christopher was going to follow their lead, but he didn't... he sat in his seat like a big boy! At one point before the movie started, a little baby in the theater started crying and he said to me, "Mama baby crying! Shhh. Quiet!"



Once the movie started the other kids settled down and Christopher did just great. He sat in his seat for most of the movie then for maybe the last 30 minutes or so he sat in my lap. There were a few parts that were scary for him (there's a scary bear in the movie, plus a fight between two bears.) He would take my arms and wrap them around himself and sometimes he would tell me, "I scared!"

He sat through the whole movie and never once asked to get up. I had asked him repeatedly before the movie if he needed to use the bathroom and he said he didn't, but I just knew that he would need to go during the movie. He didn't!

We had a great family day together (even if it did consist of us splitting up for 4 hours to watch separate movies - ha!) and I can't wait until we can do it again!

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MBA-bound

Hello! Blogging from the iPad this morning. My laptop cord is broken...or something, but it's not charging my laptop. I prefer to blog from the computer... but oh well!

Summer is starting to drag for me a little. (I never thought I'd say that!) It is just too hot to get outside during the day much. Our pool has had an algae problem for almost a month now and it's JUST starting to look better... still can't see the bottom of it though. I'm hoping it clears up within the next week or so.

Biggest news in the Olmstead house recently is that I will be returning to Henderson this fall to pursue my masters degree! I interviewed for a two jobs here locally but didn't get either of them. I applied at several other schools in the state, as well, but wasn't called in for an interview at any of them.

Stephen and I said all along that if I didn't get a job teaching, I would just return to school to get my masters -- we just figured that I would get a job. BUT I'm honestly really excited about going back to school. I'll be getting my Masters in Business Administration. Because I was a business/tech education major, I had enough business hours for a Business Administration minor. I have all but 2 pre-requisites for this graduate program. This degree will open up a few more doors for me, job-wise. I'll be able to teach high school or college classes, plus I could also get a job in the business world. It will be extremely beneficial for me in more ways than one.

I'll leave you with a fun picture. :) What Christopher and I do when we're bored during the day...


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sad times

The last few weeks have been sad ones, and I have just not had it in me to sit down and blog. I really do want to. But I don’t.

The last week of June, my mother-in-law was staying with us because her 90-something year old grandmother was very sick and in the hospital. On Sunday, July 1, Grandmother passed away. She lived a very full life and we all knew that she was ready to go.

We went to her memorial service the following Saturday, which was held in Owasso, Oklahoma. We went up on Friday and spent the night. Stephen’s grandfather (different side of the family than his great-grandmother who had passed) also lives in Owasso, and he had been having a hard time getting over a surgery from a few months back. He wasn’t eating enough and his energy level was just low. His wife died last May, so I thought he needed some home-made meals. On Thursday, the day before we left for the memorial, I spent the day in the kitchen making meals for Grandpa. I wanted to make several different dishes that could be easily frozen and then taken out to thaw and cook. Grandpa had lost a lot of weight and I thought maybe he needed some yummy homemade comfort food.  I also express myself with food. I enjoy making things for others in order to comfort them. 

I spent the entire Thursday making regular chili, white chicken chili, chicken lasagna, poppy seed/ritz chicken casserole, hash brown casserole, and Paula Deen cinnamon rolls.  I think I ended up with 13 dishes – not including 5 cinnamon rolls, which we delivered to Grandpa on Friday when we rolled into town. He had already had company earlier in the day, and he tired SO easily, so he was exhausted when we got there. We were only there a few minutes – just long enough to give him hugs and talk to him a few minutes before putting away the meals I had made him and leaving to go to our hotel so that we could meet up with Stephen’s family.  I didn’t even take a picture of Grandpa with Christopher, but we planned on going back the next day, Saturday, after Grandmother’s memorial.

On Saturday, we stayed at the memorial longer than I had planned and when we decided to leave, Stephen’s mom told us that she was planning on visiting Grandpa (her dad) before she left town. So we decided to let him save his energy for Deanna. We just told her to make sure he had eaten and tell him that we loved him.

Long story short, Grandpa passed away of a heart attack on the evening of Monday, July ninth.  So we made our way back to Owasso for the second time in less than a week for his services. Grandpa’s funeral was Friday the thirteenth, one week to the day after I delivered my ice chest full of meals for him. I think all that he ate of it was a bowl of white chicken chili. Even though my mother-in-law had been telling us that his health was deteriorating, Stephen and I were not prepared for his death and we both took it really hard. I am still having a hard time with it.  I had told Stephen on Sunday, the day before he died, that I wanted to invite Grandpa to live with us so that we could take care of him. Stephen was shocked that I suggested it – but I told him, “He’s my grandpa too!”  And I really did consider him like a grandpa to me.

So, like I said – I am having a hard time. I will try to blog more once I am feeling better. Even this story has more that I need to add to it, but I just don’t have it in me.

Two years…big difference

Happy July!

As I was prepping for dinner this afternoon, my mind was wandering around the fact that tomorrow is the 4th of July. I remembered that when I decided to go back to school, I started with a summer session – classes began on the day after July 4th. I have a weird memory. I was thinking about how it’d been two years since I’d decided to go back to school, which led me to think about how it’d been two years since I’d quit a job I hated. (Wal-Mart.) I decided to look back on the blog and see if I had documented my last day at work. I found a post (this one) that stated that my last day at work had been June 29th and that my first day back to college (with my fourth and final major) would be July 5th.

I’ve come such a long way since then. I have a college degree! I’m certified to teach! I should (cross my fingers) never ever ever ever ever have to work at Walmart AGAIN!

I am so thankful.

However, how far I’ve come and how much I’ve changed is not the topic for this blog. As I was flipping (scrolling) through my blog posts from June 2010, I ran across these pictures…

WHERE DID MY BABY GO?!? It makes my heart hurt. These pictures are all from before he turned one and he’ll be three this summer.  THREE!!  He sleeps in a toddler bed. He doesn’t need a highchair anymore. He’s walking and talking and singing. He walked in the living room earlier and started singing his ABCs to me – first time he’s sang them alone and by himself, much less unprompted. I wanted to cry. And later, when he sang them for his daddy, I did cry.

I love this age… but man, the years are just flying by. There are days when I just want to rewind…just for a few minutes, and have him be a little baby again.

And I know in a few years when he’s starting preschool (hold me!) I will look back at his age now and think, “he was so little! when did he grow up?!”

Life.