Planking

We had a follow-up today at the Children's Mercy Special Care Unit like we so often do, and while I was talking with our good friend and Nurse Practitioner, Jocie kept distracting me with her new "trick." I kept saying to her "Do you want to sit up?" and she would look at me with this tremendously excited face and her body would go berserk. I couldn't tell if she was just being silly, or proud of herself for doing something new and different.

Jocelyn was PLANKING!

At first I thought maybe I was just imagining things because she only did it twice (take a word from the wise --- just because you only see it once, or even twice, doesn't mean its a fluke, 'chance' or 'luck.' If you see it, if only once, it truly happened!).

The rest of the day Boogie didn't do it again until in the evening when daddy came home. We were just hanging out, relaxing and talking about our day when Boogie again became super excited and started planking over and over. She could only hold the position for about 2 seconds and couldn't lift her hips at the same time, but HELLOOOOO!

SHE WAS ROCKIN' THOSE FEW SECONDS!!!

She gets super camera shy (shocker I know), but the second you turn that sucker on, she stops whatever she's doing.

Being the quick and sneaky mama that I am though, I caught her awesomeness in action!

A few times she even got higher off the ground than this but my crappy camera just wasn't fast enough.

I know that a lot of the healthcare providers want Jocelyn to learn the "correct body movements/mechanics" and trust me, I do as well, but I'm a huge advocate of the idea that you can't learn movement if you aren't allowed to learn to move with what you have. You've got to start somewhere and build upwards.

Justin and I were so excited when she kept doing this over and over! Seriously, you would've thought Jocelyn won an Olympic race! We couldn't help ourselves because she was working and trying so hard and besides, it's a fantastic way to build strength and endurance in her upper body, abs, back and stabilizer muscles.

On a side note, we found out today during our check-up that Jocelyn is in the 89th percentile for height/weight ratio for her age. Can you believe that?? She's one heck of a hot mess --- a super cute, healthy, hefty hot mess!

J-Casso!

After a busy morning of waking up before 5am (by courtesy of Miss J of course), watching cartoons, eating breakfast, hand painting, a good hosing down in the bath, and bike riding at the lake...

THIS MOMMY IS TIRED!!!

I just laid Jocie down for a nap as she's been up for 6 hours already (I should take a nap too), but I've got to get some cleaning done, maybe knock out a few CEU's and wanted to share our painting project that we did this morning while I had a chance

We decided to do some finger/hand painting to make some wall art for Jocie's soon-to-be therapy room (squuuuueal!).

We started out with a plain foam board (found it at Dillions no less), and used masking tape to spell out Boogie's name. We settled on Jocie as that was easier to fit and well, we call her that a lot anyways.

Here's what we started with:

I got all the supplies we needed out and ready for Jocie to have fun:

Unfortunately, for some reason, Jocie was having a really difficult time trying to floor-sit as she seemed to be having pain, muscle spasms in her back &/or legs, or it could've been her hips as they continue to try and dislocate (that's a whole other story). However, mommy wasn't going to quit because I knew she'd have fun, so I changed it up and we used her Kaye therapy bench with an attached posture system to help her so she didn't have to do quite as much work on her own.

Ok, so now that we had everything we needed and Jocie was more comfortable, it was time to get the party started!!! Enjoy the photos below! ;)

{Sequence? Hand in paint, touch board, touch face & wait "what is this crap??"}

{She started getting into it faster than I thought she would --- its a sensory thing}

{Following directions when mommy said "let's get some more yellow paint." What a big girl!}

{Busy doing her thang!}

 {The aftermath --- Oh Mylanta!!! Come help me!}

 {Our little proud peach!}

 {It really turned out beautiful! She did the WHOLE thing HERSELF!}

{Once it was dry, I removed the tape --- Taaaa Daaaaaaah!!!}

I'm thinking we have a future Picasso...I mean J-CASSO...on our hands! ;)

Independence Day

HAPPY CELEBRATION OF FREEDOM DAY!!!

We had an absolute excellent day! After starting the day with a fab run, we all ate breakfast, got cleaned up and headed to the Spirit of Kansas Car & Craft Show at Lake Shawnee.

There were so many fabulous cars to look at, and it was hard to pick which ones we liked best. I soooooo badly wanted to touch and sit and drive them...but of course...no touchie touchies! Boo! I kept telling Jib "this one's begging me to drive it" and "this one's screaming come try out my seat and listen to some oldies." I'm pretty sure he was embarrassed the whole time.

Here is one we both totally loved!

{The paint job on this Shelby Cobra was crazy cool!}

{There were several Bel Air's, but this one in particular was my favorite.

She was such a beauty! Clean, sleek and with classy interior.}

{One of Jib's car picks was this cherry Deuce Coupe.}

 

While we were drooling over the cars, at some point I squatted down to get a better look at something when out of nowhere my leg was grabbed by something which then suddenly darted off. I instantly panicked because I thought "whoa, was that a dog that wrapped its legs around me? Or wait, was that a rodent because it darted off so quickly." My heart instantly started beating out of my chest because then BAM! This animal jump right on my chest and scurried up my shoulder and started playing with my ponytail!!! I thought I was literally going to crap my pants!

 

I'd like to introduce you to Gabrielle Tefft.

 

She was the sweetest, most friendliest, yet oddly terrifying little firecracker that I've ever seen. I was so startled and surprised, that it was almost difficult to enjoy interacting with her. She has her own facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/gabrielle.tefft.1?sk=wall (isn't that the cutest thing), and the guy even got her to sign her 'business card' for me (that's what you see her about to do in the picture above). How does she 'sign' her cards you ask? She scruffs them up with her little hands which leaves black marks - ingenious!!!

I think she really liked me because she was bouncing everywhere and crawling all over me. At one point I had to kneel on the grass because with her tornado speed, she would be dangling from my hand, then squirreling around my leg and then suddenly was back on top of my head in 15 seconds flat!

After looking at the cars, we walked around all the craft vendors and we saw one really interesting lady that made her living doing spray paint art. When we talked to her, she told us how she made her living solely by going city to city and state to state simply selling her art. I imagine at times the cash flow is good and then other times poor, but she obviously loved what she did for a living and was truly gifted.

{Here she was doing her thang! She explained how she made her art backwards, meaning, she would spray paint the colors/images of what she wanted in the foreground first, then layer colors/images over those. In between colors she lit the whole board on fire to quick dry the paint - made for great showmanship - Either way, it was super neat to see.}

{Isn't this amazing? She makes those green cave-type images by placing plain paper over the paint and then does a rubbing, pulling method to remove the top paint to reveal the paint underneath. Hard to explain but even Jib thought she was awesome and he's not even into "artsy" stuff.}

We were some of the first people to arrive to the show, so after over an hour in this crazy heat, it was time to take a break and drink some water.

{I am such a lucky woman!}

The last stop that we had to make before leaving for much needed naps, were the yummy vendors. We weren't really hungry at only 10:30am, but we had to check out what they had because you don't get those kinds of foods everyday. We settled on trying our first FRIED TWINKIES. Yes, they were mad sweet and greasy, but they were worth every single calorie!!

{Even though this tasted creamy and buttery, we should've split one! Only 30 minutes later we both felt like that Twinkie weighed 50lbs in our stomachs and we were slightly nausea hahaha}

After a nap for Boogie and some relaxing for us, we spend the hottest part of the day indoors just being lazy and spending it together. Once things cooled off, we went swimming in the pool and then we broke in the new grill with some delicious steaks and roasted potatoes. Grilled food is by far one of my top favorite things to eat! After supper, the grill was still hot, so we roasted some marshmallows and made the yummiest things on earth --- S'MORES!!! We used those campfire ones, you know, the ones that are gigantic and should never have been made. Yea, I liked using those because that made the s'mores even more of a gooey, delightfully awesome sticky mess. We ended the evening with lighting some baby fireworks with Boogie. Her favorites were the smoke bombs, hula hoops and the strobe lights. We thought she'd like the sparklers and snakes but she was less than amused.

Our 4th of July was by far the best one I've ever have. I'm extremely thankful to have my husband home to spend it with us as so many of his fellow co-workers/friends remain deployed. Many say freedom isn't free, and they are right, it isn't. Yes, military life is a choice - a calling perhaps - but its definitely a sacrifice for the entire family. Boogie and I are so proud to have a daddy with courage, strength, intelligence, defining abilities, one that knows the meaning of sacrifice and well, I guess that pretty much makes him a hero in every way!

Morning Run

This day couldn't have started any more perfect! Well, I would've like to not have been awake at 4:15am for no reason, but nevertheless, I was up and ready for a morning run at Lake Shawnee.

I got to the lake a little after 5am (we only live 2 1/2 miles from it which rocks my world!) and it was the most beautiful morning. The moon was still out along with a handful of stars, and with the breeze, the temperature was just right! I haven't been running for probably a good month or so with everything we've had going on, and this was exactly what was calling my name. I was only able to do 3 miles at a 10 minute pace, but for not running in a long while, it being early and running those hills? I was pretty dang pleased with myself!! :)

It's funny how and when God chooses to talk to you. Before I started my run I said, (and I think I said it out loud so good thing I was the only one out there) "Ok, no music, no nothing...It's just you and me this morning God, what would you like to talk about?" There were lots of people and issues going through my head, and then about half way into the run, I start seeing sidewalk chalk. Three of my favorite statements that I saw were...

"Take one step at a time."

"Live on earth as if it was Heaven."

"Mean what you say, and say what you mean because those who matter won't mind and those who mind don't matter."

I think it's quite amazing how these statements suited the conversation that God and I were having. If you've ever wondered how God can or does speak to you, here's one easy example.

After the run and as I thought I was going to utterly die, I stood there next to the car and closed my eyes as I was still cooling down. This sense of peace swarmed over me as I felt the breeze blow over my body and heard it sweetly rustling the tree leaves, birds were chirping and ducks were quacking, fireworks already popping, cars and trucks were bustling on the distant road and I felt myself sigh and say "yes...this is FREEDOM!"

S*L*I*M*E

Jocelyn and I are always looking for fun, crafty things to do together, and thanks to my sister, we made up some pretty simple slime to play with for the first time.

Here's the 3 ingredients we used:

{yea, only 3 things! Now that's what I'm talking about!!!}

All you have to do is mix equal parts glue and Sta-Flo. As a side-note, the Sta-Flo is in the detergent section at the store so don't bother looking ANYWHERE else. If you look and don't see it, keep looking, its a sneaky product that likes to hide from you even though the whole time it was staring me in the face!!

It was recommended to use 1 1/2 cups of both items. I didn't measure quite right, but it still worked well. Silly me, I thought if I just used all 10oz of glue and added 10oz of Sta-Flo that it was equal parts, but apparently you need to physically measure both with measuring cups and not just use what is disclaimed on the glue jar! :O)

So here's what the glue and Sta-Flo looks like mixed together.

Once you get it all mixed, I separated it into 3 bowls and then added the food coloring. We used neon colors so they would be really bright and even easier for J-Rae to see but trust me when I say you don't need much. I always think I need just a liiiiiiiiittle bit more hahaha. I mixed it with my hand because that was easiest and it blended the color best.

Here's the slime with the color added.

{The colors were so fun! You can see the 'watery' parts and it shouldn't be that way if you get equal parts. Lesson learned, but it was still 'slime' and worked!}

Below are some pictures of our playtime, fun-time!!!

{The initial 'touch' test!}

{LOOK AT THAT FACE!!! hahaha she was like 'oh no you didn't just convince me to touch this!'}

{The very next second? We got a smile!}

{Showing her the stringy & goopy slime}

{She thought that was pretty hilarious}

{This face right here ='s pure success!}

Happy Mouth, Happy Heart

YOU SEE THIS???

AND DO YOU SEE THIS GIRL?

Real quick, let me give you the scoop on this incredible girl. First, her name is Mickayla (aka Mic but no one gets to call her that...just me!) and we met back at Fort Hays State University while in Nursing School. This girl is one of the most amazing women I have been fortunate enough to meet, become friends with, learn her heart and I love that we continue to share our lives with one another although we are so very far apart. Mic ALWAYS has a smile on her face, the most positive outlook on life, a pure spirit and her very essence screams servitude! As long as I've known Mic, she always seems to want to help people (hence why she's a damn phenomenal nurse), she's constantly thinking of others and what she can do for them just to put a smile on their face, and truly she has absolutely no idea how beautiful she is both inside and out!

Today, I received a "house warming gift" from her (you can see all the super yummy, hip-cushioning foods above) and it totally made my entire day and THE BEST way to start the week!!! My hubby told me when he first met Mic that she was going to be his "other wife" because of her cooking and general sweet disposition. All you single fellas out there can wish on another star though because she is taken by a man that better never ever mess up! You hear me Mr. Michael??

Like so many times Mic, thank you for putting a huge smile on my face and a joyful skip in my heart. When Jib comes home from work I think he'll have the biggest smile and an even happier tummy!

NEW HOME!!!

I’m soooooooooooooooooooooooo IN LOVE WITH OUR NEW HOME!!! We’ve been wanting NEEDING a ranch-style house to help take some of the load off with caring for Boogie and EVERYTHING about this house fit the bill!

Like I said, the house is a ranch-style that sits on 4 acres of land. Upstairs, there are 4 bedrooms with walk-in closets in each, 2 full baths, a gigantic livingroom (we’re talking 20x20 folks!), and the perfect size kitchen and dining room. The halls, door frames, bathrooms, etc are oversized (the previous owners built it themselves, so that’s how they wanted things), but its an absolute perfect fit for us because this way we will have plenty of space to maneuver a walker, wheelchair or any other piece of equipment. Downstairs, there is another bedroom with a walk-in closet and full bath, a partially finished basement and the unfinished part even looks “finished” (meaning, it doesn’t creep me out hahaha). One of the many things that have been a true blessing is having everything Boogie would need all on one level of the house. We even have enough space now that we can dedicate a whole room solely to housing all her therapy equipment and still are able to do our activities in there!!!!!

We are almost totally moved in but of course the fun part of unpacking, organizing, purchasing and purging things begin! We’ve already done quite of bit of all these things (we just aren’t the type to not get stuff done), but there is always so much to do it seems.

CHECK THIS PLACE OUT!!!!!!!

Here’s the front of the house!

{Its not the best picture as it looks kind of plain Jane, but it really isn't}

And here is the back of the house with an awesome screened-in porch! This is definitely my oasis each and every night. We’ve slept in the house the past few nights and each evening we’ve sat out here until the sun has went down, and the peacefulness of the country is out of this world! (For those of you who know me, I’m NOT A COUNTRY GIRL, but now living here, I just didn’t know what I was missing!!!!)

Justin and I moved our whole house by ourselves (definitely not the 1^st time we’ve done this, but it will more than likely be the LAST time). There were moments when we were less than desirable people to each other, but that’s just gonna happen when its hot, things are heavy, you’re tired and trying to care for a little one all at the same time. We made it work though and really in hindsight, it wasn’t all that bad, and the reward has been great! I truly can't tell you how blessed we feel to have been able to find such a jewel and how much we are totally loving our new home!

IT'S A TOTAL DREAM!!!