Quote fun

 I was going to do a blog with this beautiful quote, which I feel is really more like a prayer, about parenthood. While getting ready to do the post I read mom's blog of quote fun and decided I would post the beautiful prayer and some more of my all time favorite quotes. I really want this sign for my house by the way, where could I get/make one?


"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." Grandma Dotter

"A penny saved is a penny earned." Grandma Dotter (Not sure she made this up, but she said it a lot).

-To stick to my Grandma Dotter theme here " It is just as easy to marry a rich man as a poor man." Said in the same breath as "You don't need a man to support you, go to college, support yourself."

"Everything will be ok in the end, if it is not ok, it is not the end." -Unknown

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." -Gandi

"Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups." I don't think Dad made this up, but he said it a lot.

"If the good God Lord had intended us to walk he wouldn't have invented roller skates." Willy Wonka

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever." Willy Wonka

"Be Happy" Grandma Blakley

"To whom much is given much is expected." pretty sure Luke, from the good book said that one, but not sure.

"No man is a failure who has a friend." Clarence It's a Wonderful Life


"This is a working farm." Dad closely followed by " YOU HAVE NO IDEA" mom threatened to put this on his tomb stone at one point. She went with much more eloquent quotes in the end.

That is just a spattering of some of my favorites. Love to hear your favorite quotes as well!

Ten on Tuesday

1. Well I haven't mentioned our New Years Eve celebrations mainly because there weren't any. I was scheduled to work New Years day so I headed to bed around 10pm. I ended up being on call instead of working, but I am fine with not staying up until midnight. I was woken up at midnight by the St. Louis fireworks and once again thought I was in a war zone, which is becoming a yearly tradition.

2.  We did eat our black eyed peas on New Years day this year. I didn't do this New Years Day 2010 and we all know how unlucky that year was, so I will not be making that mistake again. Zane enjoyed them, eating a entire little bowl full. Zach had to make sure that your luck wasn't directly proportional to the number of beans you ate. In case you were wondering it is not, it is just a matter of eating some black eyed peas in order to secure your good luck for the year. I tried making a black eyed pea dip yesterday with the extra can I had. It turned out alright. Here is the link to the recipe. It is on the Pioneer Woman's website, which my mom and sister love, but I find I do much better with actual measurements and this recipe didn't have any, so not sure it came together as it should have.

3. I have been cooking more as of late. I think it is an attempt at finding new activities to keep Zane entertained inside. We made Chex mix, originally intended for work Sunday, but of course we ate it like addicts. I have never done drugs but I can only assume crack is a lot like Chex mix because I can't stop eating it. Zane is also addicted to it which is adorable. He also has inherited my addiction for potato chips, probably not a good thing.

4. Right I was going to put up the link for the tasty artichoke lasagna recipe, but got side tracked with my addictions. Here is the link. I really enjoyed this recipe because I like lasagna but it usually is too heavy. This recipe, with white sauce, is much lighter and I love artichokes, so was a win win for us.

5. Zane's vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds. This weeks new words include, belly button, binka (for binki, always cried in a pathetic little voice), chip, pig, trees, cheese, vaguely bottom, and getting close to being able go say Iggy. This evening when I got out of the shower I could hear him talking and could have sworn he siad "I'm leaving", clear as day, strange. He mimics a lot more too, which has led to him being able to say 'la la loo' from dinosaur train, in his cute little singing voice. He also sings "da da.. da da" the dinosaur train theme song... ish, when he wants to watch it or while the song is playing. He is my budding little singer, I can already tell.

6. I am dreading taking down my Christmas decorations. They are so festive and once I take them down my house looks terribly bare and empty, with my two Valentine's day decorations. It always makes a huge mess and slightly depresses me. I am guessing they will stay up until after our last Christmas celebration, the weekend of January 13th. Yes, I know that is pretty much a month after Christmas, but it is the first weekend I won't have worked one or both days since Dec. 10th. Oh the joys of working at a hospital.

7. The Sooners won their bowl game, which is always ground breaking. I tried to stay up to watch it all, but it didn't even start until 9 pm, my usual bed time, so I made it until a little after half time, 11:30pm. Oh well, I was happy they won and am really hoping Landry enters the draft, I am beyond tired of him and his creepy mustache.

8. Last night Zach and I stayed up to root on the OSU Cowboys in the Tostitos Fiesta bowl. For those of you familiar with OU football you know that this isn't our favorite bowl, but I was happy that the Pokies had finally, and I do mean finally, made it to a BSC bowl. The Cowboys aren't our arch rival, Texas is, so I cheer for them whenever we aren't playing. Dad went to school there as well, so I grew up cheering for them. It turned out to be a great game with the Cowboys winning in over time. Zach and I did break out the Tostitos which is customary when this bowl game goes to over time. Congrats to all my Oklahoma State friends, here is to supporting all Oklahoma colleges!

9. This afternoon Zane and I had an impromptu tea party in the kitchen. His pans from Aunt Anna included a tea pot so we practiced pouring water out of the little tea pot into his little cup. We laid a dish towel out on the floor, which served as our table and we each had cups. Then we spent a lot of time practicing drinking, calmly, out of our cups. He has been capable of drinking out of a cup for awhile, but he needs some practice at taking little sips, to prevent the drowning/vomit situation, and most importantly not going crazy with excitement and spilling his water everywhere. By the end of our thirty minute tea party he was doing great. He used his little cup at dinner, with only a mild spill. It is progress and so fun.

10. All of my Christmas pictures came in today so now I can start my Christmas scrapbooking. I am a little over whelmed about where to start and which prompt to do first, but I am sure I will get inspired soon.

Hope everyone's 2012 is off to a great start. Happy First Tuesday of the year.

18 month checkup

Today Zane and I's outing was to his 18 month doctor's visit. It was in the middle of nap time so I had to wake him up to go. I cringe anytime I have to do this, it goes against nature to waking a sleeping baby. But it did make for a cuddly boy in the waiting room instead of a crazy man. It has gone from the 50 degree temperatures of last week back to winter time 30s so we had to bundle up for our trip. Here is Zane in his coat and Whippets stocking cap, this is the first picture that he has actually said cheese for, very cute.

Once we got to the doctor and I took the hat off, my child went from looking adorable and pulled together, as seen in the above photo, to looking like 'the wreck of the Hesperus' as my mother would say. I was mildly concerned that I might be hotline for neglect, but I think we made it out alright. There was a dinosaur book in the Turtle Room where we were, which made our wait much less painful. The doctor asked if he ever does any 'pretend play' to which I told her that our house is 100% pretend play all the time. We cook, we feed our stuffed animals, we talk on 'phones', we drive trucks, 'fix' things with our tools, you name it, he is completely 18 months old. The only other question, besides making sure he had some words, was if he could point with one finger, which he does, so he is officially developmentally appropriate! He only had to get two shots today, his pollo and his DTaP, since we had already brought him in for his flu shot earlier in the winter. P.S. GET FLU SHOTS FOR YOURSELF AND YOUR LITTLE ONES!! He did pretty good with the shots, but I think he freaked out with the second one only because he knew what was coming. He still waved bye bye to the nurse after it was over, so must not have been too bad.

The vital statistics are:
Height: 34 inches - 95%
Weight: 28lbs - 70%

Zane is a very consistent little guy when it comes to his height and weight. He has been 95% for height and 70% for weight since he was about three months old. The doctor always comments on his tall and skinny genes, which must come from Zach's mystery genes because the Blakley's did not donate those particular traits to the mix.

After the doctor we went to Target in hopes of finding band aids that aren't useless and a dinosaur train toy for my little trooper. I think I got some decent band aids but the dinosaur train toys were all sold out from Christmas. we did find a little Dinosaur train book and two random dinosaurs in the $2 bin, so it all worked out. We had a mommy and son lunch, then headed home for nap time. We don't have to go back until he is two, which I am sure will be here before I know it.

I am saying many prayers of gratitude for another uneventful doctors visit, I never take those for granted!

Scrapbooking update

As of late I have become more inspired to scrapbook. I think it partly had to do with taking part in my 12 Days of Christmas scrapbooking class and partly because I wanted a craft project to due, but couldn't come up with one, so scrapbooked instead. I haven't really done any of the layouts for my class yet because none of my Christmas photos have arrived, but in preparing for the class and reading the classroom blogs, I have stumbled onto other blogs/websites with layout ideas and sketches that have helped me come up with some new layouts. I had been feeling like all the pages I made looked a like, and struggling for new ideas, but after hours of surfing the internet on my ipad (which is much more fun than on an actual computer) I am newly inspired and have made quite a few different/new layouts. Here are the pages I have done recently.

This first one I love and did this morning. It was vaguely based on a layout sketch I found online, but I added the two little pictures at the bottom instead of just having one picture like the sketch showed. You probably can't tell from the picture but everything is sparkly/glittery, which I know isn't manly but I love it. Also, I wanted to put dapper, dude, but didn't have enough d's so Zane it was.

 This is the long awaited page of Zane's first Zoo trip. Really that day we just saw the goats, but Zane loved it. It was one of the first times we went out and about after he could walk. I know you aren't suppose to take the pictures of the layouts with them in their plastic sleeves, but for some reason both of these pages fought going in the sleeves so I wasn't about to take them out. You get the idea. I used three different boarders on the bottom which I really liked and again got the idea originally from a sketch but add more pictures/changed a view things around to accommodate more vertical pictures.

 This is Zane's heart birthday page and I came up with all the design myself, but these two pages took me pretty much all day, well all the free time I had in a day. This is what prompted me to try to find some new inspiration. I think it tuned out good, but took all together too long and I was not really enjoying it by the end of the day.

 I have done a few Christmas pages, because I just couldn't resist starting to get to use my huge stash of Christmas goodies I collected for my class.

 Again, should have taken this page out of the sleeve, but basically I am too lazy. This is Zaney in his holiday apron, which he wore a lot during all our baking. I loved the ginger bread on the page. Yes, there is a lot of bedazzlement on this page as well, but that is how it came, and I like some bling.

 This is another one of those pictures that I have had out, trying to figure out a good layout for, since I took it last February. I finally gave up, found a one picture layout sketch to copy, and made myself not over think it. I sat down and did this one in maybe ten minutes. Turns out I love how it turned out just as much as the layout I spent all day on, there is a lesson there some where.

 This one was literally an exact replica of a layout I found online using the paper set Abbey got me for Christmas. I love the set of paper and wish I had more of the papers/stickers in it. After the "Remember this"note it says 'Your Mama loves and then the big you' if you were wondering what that the 'you' was all about. Strangely I made this while Zach and I were watching a show about drug dealing so vaguely have that memory associated with it, which is odd.

 Lastly I did very simple pages containing this and last year's Christmas cards. I love the pages that come looking like they are already two pieces of paper. You really just get to add the fun stuff.

That's it, my scrapbooking update. Not sure anyone cares, but I thought Abbey and mom might like to see my new pages. Zach doesn't get too excited about them, but does pretend to care when I say "Look at my new fun page."

Family Fun Day 2012

Today Zach and I were both off work, a rarity as of late, so we seized the opportunity and had a winter family fun day. I have been struggling to find in door activities for Zane and I to do this winter, but have had the Magic House in my back pocket for a day like today. The last time we went was over his birthday weekend and he wasn't very confident in his walking so there really wasn't a lot for him to enjoy. Six months later he was able to run around everywhere, trying out lost of new things.

Family fun day did get off to a bit of a rocky start after Zane threw up his socks at our family lunch. It really is too bad because usually when we go out to eat Zane picks at our food and doesn't really eat much. Today we were at a place were kids eat free, he had his own big boy plate, and seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his mini corn dogs (yes cut into triangles don't worry mothers) and baked cheetos. Then out of no where, an epic throw up. Not fun for anyone involved. Luckily there wasn't anyone sitting near us because we would have ruined their lunch as well. Zane didn't seemed phased by it and was rearing to go after changing his outfit and basically getting a sponge bath in the bathroom of O'Charlie's, fun fun!

Once we were at the Magic house we basically let Zane run free and he found all sorts of things he wanted to explore and play with. We probably could have left the stroller in the car this time because really one of us had to man the stroller while the other one literally ran after Zane. It's ok it worked well as a coat rack/diaper bag holder. You would think that he would be at least slightly scared of running into a crowd of big kids and adults, but he was not the least bit timid. There were the occasional falls, running into people, or getting his finger smashed, but all and all he had a great time.

His favorite place by far was the alphabet wall. He would open each little window and say 'ta da' at whatever was hidden inside. He probably would have played in the rock area of the construction zone all day, but it was freezing outside so that got cut a little bit short. He climbed through  a few different tunnels, slid down a pretty big slide, found all sorts of things that made different noises, and had a ball running free. I think a membership might be in our future for cold winter afternoons when we really need to get out of the house. We should have bought one today as we spent a third of what a membership would cost getting us all in, but I just wasn't sure if he would enjoy it or not. I am happy to say we all thoroughly enjoyed it, even with only spending about an hour and a half there.

Here is Zane looking in the Z box.

 One of the many tunnels he climbed through today.

 When we got home we realized Zane was starving. He ate a PB&J, a thing of apple sauce, a baby bell cheese circle (known at our house as a cheese cookie) and quite a few of my pretzel thins before crashing for his afternoon nap. I would say it was quite the successful first family fun day of 2012.

A Year in Pictures: 2011

Well another year has come and gone and I have to say it has been the calm, positive, year that I had prayed for at the end of last year. There weren't any major life events which is just the kind of year I needed. So here it is the end of the year round up in pictures.

January:

We started off 2011 by attending Adeline's fourth birthday tea party. This was a highlight of my year for sure. I loved getting dressed up and watching all the little girls enjoy a real life fancy tea party. 

Then we took our annual trip to Oklahoma for Brendan's birthday party. This also continued my tradition of getting sick during my annual January trip to Oklahoma. Brendan use to love it that I was always am at his birthday parties. I think he probably still enjoys it, but now he always asks me "Why do you never come to Maggie's birthday parties?" To which I respond, "Well Maggie decided to be born on the same day I got married so I am usually busy." He never buys this, but it is the best excuse I can come up with. 

At the beginning of this year we had a little six month old, who could barely sit up. He played in one spot, needed us to feed him, was rocked to sleep, still drank formula, and couldn't say a word. We end this year with Mr. Independent, who feeds himself, drinks from a sippy cup, puts himself to sleep, understand what we are saying, runs around like a crazy person, and even has quite a few words. So amazing! Here is Mr. Man in January.

February:

There were no big event in February, just continued healing for myself and my little man. We survived the snow "storm of the century" unscathed. Zane started feeding himself little pieces of solid food. We got a new computer, which decreased the amount of rage in my heart due to the freakishly slow previous computer. Oh and how could I forget this, Zane had his first taste of chocolate and has never been the same since.

March:

March marked Zane's first steps towards mobility. He began army crawling this month, so the child proofing began around the house. Little did we know how much more of this was in our future. I started my scrapbooking hobby which has led to a lot fun stress relief. I reported to  jury duty, which was the single largest amount of time wasted in my life. And of course Zaney celebrated his first St. Patrick's Day.

April:

In April Zane started pulling up and doing a little cruising, the start of his independent streak. Mom came to visit this month which was tons of fun. Anna got engaged, there was the royal wedding (big highlight in our life because it was the same day that our basement flooded), we celebrated Becky's wedding, and we welcomed Zane's new best friend, Jamey Wamser, into the world. 

May:

I turned twenty eight in May along with celebrating my first Mother's Day. We made a quick trip down to Zach's parents to celebrate mother's day and Clay's 8th birthday. We all went to Oklahoma this month for the dedication of the Danny Blakley Science center, which was a difficult, but fun trip. As the weather warmed up Zane and I spent more and more time outside.

 Look at this chubby little baby boy.

June:

Of course the biggest event of June was celebrating Zane's first birthday. We did it up in style with all of our family coming in for the big event. Zane decided to walk a week before his birthday and that was when everything really started to get crazy around the Korenak house hold. June also marked Zane's first trip to the park and began his love affair with his whale pool, which lasted about a month before getting a hole in it. 

July:

July's big event was mom and I's whale watching adventure to Nova Scotia ending with the huge debacle that was our trip home. We had a quiet fourth of July here at home, Zane I took a trip to Oklahoma, and the only other event that month was Zach and I going to see the final Harry Potter movie. We have been seeing Harry Potter together since we started dating so it was an end to a big chapter in our life.

August:

In August we celebrated five years of marriage. We had planned on taking a weekend trip to Chicago to celebrate this milestone, but that never happened. We also celebrated Blaine's 7th birthday with a trip to the ball park in blazing hot weather. Zane had reached maximum speeds/destruction ability by this point in the year and we had begun to get use to the craziness that is being a parent to a toddler.

September:

As expected September was a difficult month as we remembered a year since dad had died. It was difficult celebrating Zach's birthday, but on our trip home for Anna's wedding we had a party on the 4th instead of the 7th to make things easier. We had a blast at Anna's wedding and were all so happy to be part of her big day, though I was terribly sick. I was on nights for most of August and September so these months are kind of a blur. 

October:

October included lost of fall fun. We carved pumpkins, played in the leaves, went to Oklahoma, went to a pumpkin patch, and celebrated the Cardinals 11th world series championship. On the 26th we rejoiced on the one year anniversary of Zane's heart surgery. We celebrated our happy, healthy, crazy little boy. We ended this month with Zane thoroughly enjoying his first experience with trick or treating and Zach and I loved watching it. 

November:

I feel like we were sick for most of November which is about normal for this month. Mom came up for a quick fall visit and we did manage to spend Thanksgiving with Zach's family. Even with all the illness it was nice to actually be with one of our families for a holiday. 

December:

December was full of holiday preparations. Since we weren't going to get to go anywhere for Christmas I feel like I made an extra effort to do Christmas activities and get excited for the holidays. My family came up early in the month to go to my cousin Rachael's wedding. Zane and I had fun through out the month with all our outings and baking. Christmas was quiet at home, but Zane loved all his present and understood much  more what was going on this year compared to last year.

That's the year in pictures. It was a great year filled with lots of love and laughter. The highlights for me were celebrating Zane's functioning heart, watching my best friend get married, finding out that Abbey was pregnant with her third child, and all the time spent with family and friends. We weren't able to spend any holiday's with my family this year, which is still difficult to deal with, but we were able to see them a lot, celebrating whenever we could. Tonight I will burn my regrets, eat pretzels, drink ginger ale, toast the year gone by, and count my blessings as we enter into a new one.