Nicholas Sparks & a Book Club

Saturday has left me all kinds of motivated! I was blessed to be given the opportunity to go to Chicago and promote a new classroom tool that uses the most popular classroom books by Nicholas Sparks  to prepare students for standardized testing, but most importantly it helps the teacher by already being aligned with the Common Core Standards. It truly will be a great tool for any high school teacher to have, and I was honored to be able to share it with many, many teachers at the NCTE convention. You can check it out at www.novellearningseries.com  

An added bonus was that Nicholas Sparks showed up for a signing. I had the pleasure of getting to meet him, and he gave me two signed books for volunteering. =) (The Notebook and The Best of Me)

I must say that him and his brother are very excited for this new project... and oddly, I find myself very excited about it too.

I'm back in the book club gang. Well...I'm in a new book club. The library in City was just too much of a hassle, there were never enough copies of the book, I hate driving through the tiny downtown streets, and there were just too many people wanting to hear themselves talk - so I stopped trying. Well, now the events on Saturday has me motivated to get back to it...Out of sheer luck, the County Library book club just so happens to be meeting NEXT Tuesday and did have a copy of the book available, plus the book club is meeting at the location that is less than 3 minutes from my house.. boo-yeah. I had to go to Laporte last night to get the book after Chris got home from work, but now I'm ready to read and discuss! I'm excited to meet the people in this book club next week.

I also realized on Saturday how much I miss volunteering at events such as this. If I could make a living doing canvassing work I would do it in a heartbeat. I love it. I'm comfortable with it (once I get familiar with the product) and there is just no better work to do. So.... to try to find more canvassing opportunities I went back to my roots. I contacted Rock the Vote in hopes of being able to slide into some events in the Chicago Region. I have a conference call on THANKSGIVING night to discuss details. I am hoping that something fun can be worked out. =D

Mmm... Cheap and Delish

Chicken and Broccoli Rolls:

 This is a great dinner that turns the leftovers into a quick and simple snack without doing anything else to it! It takes minutes to prepare and even less time to cook. (Also, youcan slap the extra mixture on bread for lunch the next day!)

Ingredients:

1 Cup Shredded Chicken

½ Cup Broccoli (finely chopped)

½ Cup Carrots (finely chopped)

½ Cup Mayonnaise

1 tsp Garlic

½ tsp Dill Weed

1 pkg Crescent Rolls   

Directions:

1      Preheat Oven to 375*.

2     Cut Broccoli and Carrots. (I use organic shredded carrots and then just chop into pieces.)

3     Mix Chicken, Broccoli, Carrots, Mayo, Garlic, and Dill Weed in bowl.

4     Unroll Crescent Rolls onto cookie sheet and spoon mixture on pieces then roll.

5     Bake for 12-14 Minutes or till golden brown.

 

Katelyn Cheering On Her Colts

Maybe we're crazy for taking our 5 week old baby to a professional football game, but as you can see... she loves the Indianapolis Colts. She cheered them on when the cheering was bleak from the rest of the crowd.


FYI: If you are nursing a baby - Lucas oil Stadium is not very accommodating. The "Family Restroom" is literally just a little larger than a handicapped stall. Maybe I was expecting too much when I expected a family restroom to have a little chair like most every other one I've been in has. Thankfully the handicap section chairs are just folding and Chris was able to carry it in there so I didn't have to spend 20 minutes or better sitting on a open toilet seat! ha-ha!

Visiting Danville

Oh man! I've said it time and time again... If I have to be old, please let me be old and healthy like my grandma! Here Katelyn is with cousin Ashley and Great-Grandma Knowles.... does anyone believe me when I say she is 93 years old?? (and that's her REAL hair, no wigs going on...no botox... just absolute youth.)




Here Katelyn and I are with Ashley and Rachel. The girls loved seeing Baby K, and they wouldn't put her down for anything. In fact, poor little Miss Ashley started crying when her mommy finally stole Katelyn from her baby loving arms. I'm so proud of the amazing Preteen and teenager these two are growing to be. You'll notice I'm representing Sweden in my big yellow sweatshirt. =)

Aunt Marianne and Uncle Andy stopped by to meet Katelyn and she just adored them. I think Katelyn could feel the 'baby vibes' coming from them both as TODAY is the day that their Daughter-In-Law gets induced to deliver thier SECOND granddaughter, going to be named Reese. They pick such cute names. Their oldest daughter is Blaike...it took awhile - but it has truly grown on me as a girl name and now I think it's totally cute and it fits Blaike perfectly.

I have some videos that I will poste later today since I am on a husband-ordered BedRest because my incision refuses to heal....he thinks I am moving around too much. =P

Katelyn at the Doctors

Katelyn had her 1 month appointment with the Doctor. This is actually an appointment that we wouldn't have needed, but since the doctor was out of the office both times we went and we had the NP both times, he wanted to be sure that he got a chance to see her soon... so today it was.

Cathy went with us to the appointment, and it was as fun as a doctors can be. She has gained more weight coming in at 8.7 pounds. They did not do her length this time... I think because the exam rooms were full when they did the weight and temperature the nurse may have forgot once we actually got into the room.

Now, her belly button was bleeding and oozing after the cord fell off - and I thought that this was more than the the "little bit" we were told would occur. It stopped for a couple days, but then began to bleed again. I called the DR's office at that time and the girl told me not to worry it's fine... which it may have been in a sense... but now it is still out/open and inflamed and the DR said there is nothing he can do now we just have to let it heal on its own, where as before, if I would have been taken seriously, he would have been able to put some silver nitrate on it and help close it up, but now that will only hurt her. I don't think it is causing her serious pain, but sometimes she lets out this cry and I think it may be how her diaper rubs the belly button... Any thoughts??

We did get a huge pat on the back for using cloth diapers, so I was happy about that since it is more work and I was hoping that it really was a health benfit to her as well as a green benefit for the environment. Apparently, he thinks it is a big health benefit to keep the plastic away... but we do use the occasional disposable at certain times. =/

Everything else was in good shape as far as he/we can tell. =) Hooray!