HAPPY DANCE at our house!

Today I was a responsible employee!  Instead of taking the ten or so mins I had to check my email b/4 clocking in I was productive for work reasons!  Since the co has screwed me so often on tidbits here and there I’ve taken every min of my time and clock in and out on the dot as often as possible. 

The day was pretty easy overall.  None of our challenging children had fits, I made progress on all my vday needs, and I had a semi relaxing afternoon.  Semi due to the four kids refusing to clean up even though they know they need to and had plenty of warning time.  ERRRRR; I told the buggers that we will not play in h.l. in the afternoon tomorrow. 

During my lunch break I had just enough time to check emails, read blogs, and post my pics from Thursday.  Maybe tomorrow I will be able to upload the rest from the weekend. 

When I got off work I called Aaron and discovered he got off early today (and for the next month and a half) and was at the dog park w Sasha!  I was so jealous! 

Nothing out of the norm at la casa other than I mixed some recipes to create a semi new one.  Not posting pics b/c it wasn’t pretty, at least not till after I soaked up the excess liquid.  *go to bottom for my changes*

Just remembered that the blogger let me know my ?, this chick just recaps this other chick; so that she isn’t getting revenue to her site.  There seems to be quite a bit of peeps who dislike the latter. 

K, we are watching the most recent Bourne and then off to bed.  Just so I remember:

Bfast – fresh pineapple and banana oatmeal

            IMO – was okay.  Probably better if I add some coconut extract

Snacks – berry medley, mandarin orange, kiwi, & six veggie straws

Lunch – LO soup w added chickpeas and baby limas as well as lots of spices (I can’t even remember them all, which is a shame b/c it made the soup way better! As in I’d buy it again if I could recreate this).

Dinner – Caprese Style Bake

            IMO – amazing!!!!  I can’t believe that even after roasting the s.squash for an hour (yesterday) and

cooking it in liquid for another forty five plus there was tons of it in the bottom.  Aaron said

we could repeat it, but maybe add some meat next time..  I also loved how the squash kept

it’s al dente bite!  SOOO going to have to buy this veggie more often. 

Now if you want to make it:

NEED:

1 apprx 4lb spaghetti squashed (roasted, shredded, and probably drained)

3 c tomato sauce of choice (I used my homemade Roasted Garden Veggie Tomato Soup)

½ ball of fresh mozzarella – cut into small pieces

2 vine ripened tomatoes – sliced or ‘cubed’

Basil – did not measure b/c I love the stuff and just sprinkled it on to every layer

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

¾ c Italian Cheese Blend – more if desired

Crushed red pepper

ASSEMBLE:

Preheat oven to 350

In 9x9 pan layer:

Spaghetti squash – 1 c sauce – 1 tomato – ½ mozzarella cheese – 1 tbsp b. vinegar sprinkled – basil

REPEAT

Top w last 1/3 of spaghetti squash – 1 c sauce – sprinkle ¾ c cheese over top

Bake for 30 mins covered.  Another 5-10 uncovered.  Let set for 5 mins, drain if necessary. 

I appreciate the idea from these two ladies and hope you’ll try a version of your own. 

SOOOO glad that the hubs will be home at a decent hour for the next month and half!

Thank you for letting me tell you my way of doing the pasta.  Have you made a dish with this veggie?  Please do share…

lots of IMO's today

I’m not sure as to whether to say today was a good or bad day.  It started out just fine; new to me yogurt while enjoying my book (which by the way I really wish I’d picked it up sooner or had more time to read so I can actually discuss it w Lindsay).  Aaron had the day off so I didn’t feel rushed when it was time to get ready in order to play with Sasha.  I got to work w enough time to check y email and pay our phone bill.

The morning itself went okay I guess.  Circle time wasn’t terrible neither was center time.  There was an accident from Jumping Tantrum, that’s right FROM; she bit a peer for no reason.  Got him good too!  Broke the skin and turned purple really fast.  Jumper also got some sassiness after lunch.  She had eaten all her meat and veggies and I had to help a couple of other kids so she had to wait on her fruit  well she stole a spoon and when I took it back (it wasn’t hers) she basically cussed me in her own language; throwing and shoving things w grunts. 

Nap was good though; there was maybe one or two kids awake at two when it was time to get em up.  My lunch break was productive.  I finally got some entries posted from last week, just two.  They were very link heavy and took a bit of time to complete.  I started my WW but the computer froze while I was copying the last image to publish. 

After lunch/nap is where I think it went all downhill.  I kind of blame these veggie straws.  They are very popular w lots of peeps.  I usually enjoy them, but went overboard today.  For some reason the green ones were super crunchy w a nice snap and I couldn’t stop eating them.  I think I ate too many b/c towards the end I actually felt like I was eating something fried and felt a littlie icky.  From then on out I just felt kind of crabby and impatient.  I should remember this and test the theory again.  (Later while talking to hubby about it he said I was probably crabby b/c I was berating myself rather than actually feeling icky from consuming them.) 

Again before going outside our new fund biter decided to bite just for the hell of it.  The ED was in to see her little one and get some loving (also to check out the mark) and she saw both bites, w/ in ten minutes of each other.  Biter bit one person, I cleaned wound and was about to be done filling out the accident report when biter bit another child!  I only mention the ED being in the room b/c she told our DR that it seemed to really stress us out.  Not too sure I appreciate that really.  I mean yeah we were frustrated, but there’s the whole he said she said business.  IDK how she said it or why or in what manner so it may be negative on us or it could be one of those moments ‘they really needed some help and I’m not sure what to do’.  The ED offered to take her out, but that’s almost rewards.  I removed biter helped her over to the safe place and gave her something to chew on instead.  Seemed to work till it was time to put her coat on and she tried to bite me!  She also tried to bite a peer outside on the playground.  I saw ED later and got her to sign the reports while talking about it.  She didn’t mention that she had said anything to the DR.  I also said I thought it might be due to biter’s cognitive level rather than sensory need and ED said it could have been just for the reaction.  Regardless the DR said it was okay to mention to mom so I did and it made the mom teary eyed.  I guess she thought we were going to kick her out; but I did my best to reassure her that I thought it was due to needs rather than being mean and just wanted to give her a heads up and see if she has any tips or tricks. 

My CCT3 said she was going to do paperwork when we came in but didn’t go straight to it.  I can’t remember what she did right away, but I do know that the kids were wild on the carpet and they shouldn’t have been left alone so I sat with them.  Well there was a bm hanging around and my CCT3 took care of that instead of doing paperwork.  Personally I think it was a bad mistake.  We were ridiculously understaffed today (luckily nobody asked me to close and we, admin team, figured out a way to cover it successfully) and I’m sure we won’t get our time for the rest of the week either.  (*NOTE TO SELF* put this on the calendar at school). 

Aftercare was a PITA.   The kids stayed at the table and played w table toys, but they made a huge mess.  Also the little gal who we are still taking responsibility for to go potty managed to pee her pants and I just couldn’t keep my cook w her.  She was doing all sorts f wrong decisions: playing with a paintbrush in the drain, pulling on her private, and just hanging out for over fifteen minutes in the restroom.  She really needs to work on speaking up and facing the speaker as well as taking responsibility for her own needs.  I also would like to take a minute to complain about another child, I’ll call him something soon b/c I’m sure he’ll come up again, he drives me bonkers.  Every time he gets into trouble he has to back talk, literally!  Always wanting to know why he’s in trouble, or why I said to do something, or to apologize or that he didn’t mean to.  And I know that I have to be nice to him b/c of his family situation, but man does he really need things laid out for him.  He’s so smart and knows what he’s doing!  BBBBEEEEAAAAHHHHHH

Okay, that might be out of my system.  On the way home it dawned on me (FINALLY) to just take control of the kitchen situation at home.  So I decided that tonight we were going to have a spinach artichoke like pasta and Aaron was okay w it!  He added crab and scallop to his dish, while I attempted to keep mine meat free.  More on that later.  I also decided that tomorrow we are going to have pork fried rice and took out the last two pork ribs to thaw and asked him to be responsible for rice.  I wanted him to make it while we were fixing dinner, but he said he’d do it later.  We’ll see.  If it doesn’t get done tonight guess I’ll eat his leftover pizza for dinner (that I discovered was still hanging out in there). 

At the house he did dishes and made his pasta w seafood while I made lunch and prepped the ‘sauce’ and made my own dinner.  I also forced Bella to take her meds.  I felt awful!  I’ve been trying to find ways for her to take the antihistamine for a while and finally broke down and smashed it and mixed it w tuna water and plunged it down her throat.  I thought the tuna water might make it better, but she didn’t take it willingingly.  I can’t decide whether or not to continue using the tw or just water.  Probably just going to use water so not to taint the tw for treats. 

While making dinner the shittiness didn’t end.  I had a glass of wine on the microwave and told myself not to forget about it.  However my self didn’t listen and I opened the cabinet and knocked the entire glass (minus maybe two sips) onto the floor.  The worse part is that it was the next to last pour of a bottle from NY.  However the glass I was using didn’t break!  I’m pretty sure it was from the tasting I went to w Carrie and should let her know!  After cleaning it up I finished off the bottle and started another one.  It was really one of those days where I should have just drunk from the bottle!!!

I ate:

Bfast – new to me Greek Lite Yogurt Kroger brand blueberry w a banana. 

            IMO – it was okay.  Only 2PPs, I’d eat again, but nothing to write home about

Lunch – new to me soup from Campbells 

            IMO – it too was just okay.  I still prefer the boxed one from Aldi’s that’s seasonal.  I think it smelled better than it tasted b/c my CCT1 asked if that’s what it was by name and I couldn’t remember, but it didn’t taste basily enough or hearty for me. 

Snacks – caramel rice cakes in the am, ½ banana, clementines, veggie straws, and an apple

Dinner – Spin Art Pasta w roasted onions and bell peppers over Shirtaki noodles

            IMO – once again just okay.  First time I had the noodles.  They weren’t terrible.  Aaron thinks they were to soft.  But if I can have pasta for no extra PPs more regularly bring it!  I kind of which I’d taken the time to actual create a sauce rather than just mixing it all in. 

            Mixed Art Hearts w seasoning

            Topped w peppers and onions

            Then topped w fresh spinach

            Next broke some LC cheese

            Added the noodles

            Baked in oven to get hot and melt and wilt

            Then nuked in microwave b/c it was gooey wilty enough

            Finished w nutritional yeast

            LOOKED like ASS, but decent enough to eat. 

Guess I should tell you that Aaron took Sasha to the vet today and she does have a mild case of demadex (sp?).  Now I’m going to have to look it up and figure out what it is for realz.  Her weight is 57 ½ I think, should double check but doubt I’ll remember to come back and tell ya. 

Ok I gotta go, but wanted you to know the best part of my day was coming home and having Aaron already here. 

Hope you were able to get through all that nonsense!!!

wednesday catch-up and a fun thursday

So this is sort of day two of my attempting to get back on track.  I didn’t write to you yesterday thinking I’d try to follow WW, but I would like to tell you about my dinner double date.  We ate we Lindsay and Colin at Ru Sans.  I actually got there first.  IDK if you remember or not but the last time we met them it was raining and I hadn’t driven in that area for a while and had no clue where parking was.  This time though I parked behind the Station Inn, which was free and luckily I didn’t get towed.  There was a concer going on so that may have had something to do with it.  Hopefully there will be a concert or shin-dig going on next time we dine there. I enjoyed myself as always and found out some extremely interesting house talk that I won’t describe here if there is some strange reason a stranger happens upon this and reads.  I will say that it def. opened my eyes to new living.  On to dinner shall I?... I thought hubby would order the sashimi plate again, but he didn’t.  Since I had the menu printed off from last time I knew some of the things I wanted to try and made two separate choices: one for just me and one in case hubs did order sashimi and would share.  As just previously mentioned I got the pleasure of ordering my own dinner: Albacore Tuna Nigiri, Tuna Maki (tuna wrapped in rice w seaweed on the outside), and Tiger Shrimp Appetizer thing.  IMO the albacore didn’t seem that much better than the ordinary tuna.  The shrimp app was way different than I read the description.  I can’t really remember the description, but on the plate there was this MASSIVE serving of semi bland guacamole.  Probably about two avocado’s worth!  Off to the side of the guac was some deliciously marinated and cooked shrimp.  And surrounding the other edge of the guac were these weird chips (that I know were described as crisps of some sort) but kind of had the consistency of Muncho’s and felt really strange on the tongue.  I’m pretty sure that the chef/creator included one shrimp per chip and assumed the guest would use a quarter of a cup of guac per chip/shrimp combo.  Def. not worth the eight + bucks they charged, but oh wellz, at least I tried it and found out.  Not everything can be a win right?

Now on to today since that extremely long paragraph just recapped dinner!

Bfast was a banana and some blackberry carbmaster.  Nothing fancy or plated/dished. 

The day was pretty amazing.  We had three out of six kids, all there are on my case load.  My CT was nice and stayed in the room with me the entire time.  All three had some amazing days: Burrows made some amazing eye contact to request help several times, vocalized for his SLP during therapy, used his fork with only one reminder, took a nap, and several other positives; the biggest one being that he didn’t have any meltdowns!  Blondie actually actively engaged in several activities.  She made choices by pointing, requested a song, babbled, and walked on her own without any outside ‘pushing’: she got out of her chair and walked to my CT.  Oh yeah and she spoon fed herself ¾ of a cup of yogurt!  Sassitude participated a lot today too.  She also vocalized for several things and showed us that she knew body parts!  When mom picked up Sassitude she mentioned that the SSI lady though she had Autism.  My CT and I just gawked.  The child was/is a Shaken Baby, which of course is going to have/display some sort of ‘issues’.  The SSI lady thought that the child stemmed and played to focused on one activity.  For heavens sake she’s got brain damage!  Maybe her stemming is b/c she has vision trouble?  Or maybe she’s two and likes dolls!  Anyways I could go on and on for many pages I’m sure about how stupid the SSI lady is, but I think you get the point – brain damage not Autism!  And while I’m on my soap box this just goes to show ya how over diagnosed Autism is!!!      

Since today is Thursday I did half my afternoon time in the baby room and other half w the big kids.  The AT in the baby room is back (she was out due to her son getting tubes – he did well and hasn’t slept comfortably yet, but that’s it really).  I went in a couple of minutes late, my CT doesn’t think getting in to our rooms on time is very important.  I as trying to leave and she kept trying to talk to me.  However when I got in there the AT was already doing DN’s b/c the floater was in there, so I didn’t feel too terribly guilty.  When it was time for me to leave though she wasn’t done and I went to the next room late.  I really need to say something to the DR about this again.  I think I’ve asked before what to do in that case, but don’t really remember what she said to do. 

Both of the teachers were out during my time w the big kids.  Not a big deal really.  I actually enjoyed it too.  I got to work on doing a jigsaw puzzle with the DR’s daughter, which was fun trying to get her to look at the box and try to create a picture.   I’m sure Aaron would insist that was a reason to have kids; so he could do it too.  The bad part about both teachers being out is that they’ve changed their aftercare routine a bit and I’m not familiar with it so I didn’t keep the kids on schedule.  My bad.  The AT said it wasn’t a big deal that they would just all play together. 

Earlier on in the day I asked the DR if I could work on Sassitude’s metro sheet if numbers were low this afternoon and she said it was fine.  However when four o’clock rolled around and I tried to get the Giraffes room covered she, the DR, told me to go ahead and let the chick out doing paperwork complete her time and I could just take some from her tomorrow.  Wonder if that will follow through?

I was able to get out of the classroom at a quarter till and complete my TEIDs I didn’t finish due to my CT wanting to talk. 

When I got off I was torn btwn going/coming home to make dinner or go to hubby’s game.  I ended up coming home and told myself that since his game should be at seven next week I can do that better.  I’ll at least have time to eat something before that hour. 

At the casa I prepped bfast – strawberry and mango for a parfait, lunch – a salad to top w Mexican chicken and fruits and veggies, and then dinner.  I used an idea from here and tweaked it a bit. 

1 Serving:

ingredients

1 cabbage leaf

3 inch chunk of leek

1 serving sun dried tomatoes

1 serving canned chicken or chicken of choice

22 g dried pasta of choice

Parmesean cheese

Spices/seasons of choice: mine were Italian seasoning, chili powder, and garlic

To make

Heat skillet   Sautee cabbage, leeks, and sdt’s.  Stir in seasonings and a bit more oil for taste.   Toss in chicken.  Stir.  Toss over pasta, sprinkle w cheese, add S & P if you’d like.  EAT. 

I liked it.  Next time I’ll probably use a bit more oil maybe?  It wasn’t quite as moist as I’d like, but good flavor. 

While eating I went through the circulars.  It was a right around seven when I finished and Aaron wasn’t home.  So I washed dinner dishes and sat down to a cup of lemon cream pie yogurt from Aldi.  It was okay.  Their banana cream pie was much better. 

Aaron got home around 8:30 or so, which I though was unusually late.  His game was at six, ends at seven, and should have been home by eight.  He said his game didn’t end till late b/c it started late.  He had a strange auror about him and his eyes were really red.  He said nothing was wrong.  After a bit longer he did confess to pretty much drinking all afternoon.  He had a couple at lunch w his coworkers.  A couple more at the lot while working on his own car off the clock.  And a couple more at the game, since it’s a drinking and playing league.  I’m surprised he’s up and walking and driving.  However I know it’s been over a course of several hours, but still makes me a bit nervous. 

Well now that he’s home and we are going to watch Tudors.  Most excited about my kids doing so well today! 

Thanks for reading about my day…