Catching up…. 90+ days, pink eye, Spring Break, illness, words, words, word

Whew….finding time to write…well that’s not that hard since it’s Spring Break but having the energy/desire to do so…not so much.  First let me clear the title up…NO we did not have pink eye for 90+ days LOL  Yeah after I typed that I thought that it could be a bit alarming.  The no days refers to my making it through well past my 90 day probationary period in my new job!! Woot, woot!!! ~~Happy Dance~~  YEAH!!!

Now I’m officially a full time employee with FULL benefits with K.I.T.!  YES!  So why did I mention pink eye, you’re wondering?  Well Cece had pink eye a couple weeks ago.  Yeah…fun!  (NOT!) But I did learn something very important that I didn’t know before.  The incubation period from when Cece had pink eye until little sister got it was 10 days!  Blech!  Throw in double ear infections, sore throats and coughs…yeah we’ve been sick.  Oh and lets not forget Gege picking/messing with a hang nail that then got infected and had to be treated and is now coming off.  UGH.  I have been sick for 7 weeks now.  Not debilitating sick but irritatingly so.  Starting 3rd round of antibiotics today so …. crossing fingers…. I’m frankly sick of being sick!  Sigh…

But any who… Life goes on and is still amazingly awesome despite invasion of germs/bugs.  Cece has had an amazing couple months.  She’s had an explosion of words and skills.  She can now answer questions, ask questions, and almost have a conversation.  She’s learned not only her entire alphabet by sight but also all the sounds the letters make and can tell you words that start with the letters.  Plus she’s learned all her numbers 0-10 by sight along with some sight words too.

I changed her mega vitamin/supplement regimen at the beginning of the year and the difference has been phenomenal!  She’s doing all the things I mentioned above plus staying on task longer, drawing, coloring, cutting, gluing, and creating like crazy.  Her social skills and eye contact have increased by leaps and bounds.  She’s getting a SPIO suit here soon with a grant from the Stone Soup Group.  She’s been using one at therapies with wonderful success.

We still have a very very long ways to go but she amazes me everyday!  We’re working hard on sentences and asking for things and responding to others while making at least minimal eye contact.  Impulse control or well lack there of is still a huge issue.  She’s been having to adjust to having a new primary care provider as the one we had for over a year gave her notice and took a job working for a doctor in Soldotna.  Not that I can blame her!  Cece wasn’t her only client, she had another before she came to our house at 7 a.m. every week day morning.  She worked with Cece for atleast an hour every morning, 5 hours on therapy days, took her to school, picked her up and finished her day here in our house at 6 p.m.  So her moving on to a regular hour full time job that didn’t mean getting up at 4 a.m. yeah I totally understand that!  We miss her but Cece’s adjusting surprisingly well!

Gege…oooh Gege.  She’s had amazing changes too!  The most recognizable ones are 1. She’s grown 2 and 1/2 inches since Christmas. 2. She’s talking nonstop.  3. Her social skills have grown like crazy!  She not only keeps me on my toes but boy does she make me smile and laugh.  The things she says…wow!

In other news….I’m not going to make my goal of being closer to what I weighed 20 years ago after Navy bootcamp by my 40th birthday…BUT I am down 41 lbs and 24+ inches!  Now that I’m working I’m steadily losing more weight plus able to buy more organic, nonGMO and natural foods.  Now don’t get me wrong we’re not total health food consumers….coffee creamer is my down fall…SMH…and a few other things are hard to give up (Gluten free…sigh…probably won’t happen), but we are eating much healthier I think.  We’ve cut down/out HFCS, reduce our soy intake, increased our supplements/vitamins and drinking more water (well I am, the girls have always pretty much only drank water )

I think that about catches us up.  OOH we did have our 2 year anniversary back on Feb 10.  Two years we’ve live here in Kenai!!! YEAH!!!  Plus my 11 year anniversary of turning 29 years old is only days away too! (Eek hardly 3 weeks left in my 30′s!!  YIKES!! where’s that first 40 years go?)

So in closing here are various pictures from recently.  I hope y’all are doing as well as we are!  Enjoy….

Gege playing with the mini sensory container at school (That’s ground coffee for the dirt!)

Enjoying some “Mommy and Me” time for lunch before a doctors appt. Mmmm french fries, Mom!!  A rare treat, indeed!

Bye “Most Wondeful Care Provider”!  We’ll miss you and wish you all the best in your new job!

Glenna doing a counting exercise (Counting raindrops) at school.

Gege’s turn to cut a raindrop and put it on the corresponding number.

Learning to hammer.

Building…and demolishing…with big blocks aka boxes.

Oh, Mom…the sensory input I get from brushing my hair is better than stimming!! LOL  She loves to brush her hair!

Wish I had gotten video of this b/c she was “reading” the book to herself.  I couldn’t understand any of it but she was loving it!

Hippity Hop!

Look, Mom!  I no more eyes pink!

Yeah, I know, Mom!  Head butting sister gave me a black eye It’s not a good choice, not okay!  But look my pink eye’s gone!!

Happy Anniversary, My Love!

R.I.P. Segundo! We love and miss you very much!

Catchin’ up….Head Start, Valentine’s Day, Fun…Fun…Fun…

Gege playing with puppets at Head Start

Glenna’s circle time label for head start for February

Best Buddies!

fun during active play

look…red and white make PINK!

waiting on Mom and Sis…they’re so slow when Momma is pulling both Cece and the groceries home in the sled. Guess I’ll just sit here and wait…. Come on, Mom! We got cookies and cupcakes to make!

No, Mom. I’ll sit here and play with the new stapler while you mix cookies with the scary overwhelming mixer!

okay…I guess I can help lick the beaters, though!

me too, Mom!

Mixing up cupcakes

practicing frosting…

Stay very still, Cece. Cece’s primary care provider is tracing the outline of Cece’s face

First set frosted, not liking this frosting so next I’ll try royal icing….

aww that’s better! Much better!

Got them all decorated. Now it’s time to add all the names…students, teachers, coworkers….

a fine paint brush and some gel food coloring and VIOLA! They’re all labeled!

next frosted the cupcakes

made some chocolate covered strawberries…the berries were on sale so I couldn’t resist making them for my coworkers!

After all that work and a long day filled with Valentine’s celebrations it was time for some rest and dinner ordered in.

Tons of Valentine’s for the girls from their classmates and from my students too. Plus I got this beautiful rose too!

A few of Cece’s and one of Gege’s  lunches because although Adventures in Lunchdome didn’t get posted her lunches still had to happen

Mmmm….smells very good, Mom! Gege smelling our dinner for tonight that she helped make. Beef pot pie! Yum!

dinner is served! Yum!

and finally…Cece decorating the living room this evening..LOL

It’s been a busy week.  Lots of treats, parties, coughs, runny noses, and sore throats but lots of fun.  We stayed in this weekend and rested.  Tomorrow we’ll dive into a fresh new week!  Hope y’all had a great Valentine’s Day!

 

2 years! Yeah!

It’s hard to believe that it was two years ago today that my girls and I moved here to Kenai.  What an amazing couple of years it’s been!  Life. Is. Awesome!

Hope to write more later this week.  The girls have been sick this past week with colds, ear infections, sore throats and coughs.  Because we’re a “Sharing” family I now have it too.  So will try to do some catch up later this week.  It’s a very busy week with Valentine’s Day and a surprise visit planned.  We spent this weekend baking and getting ready for the week’s upcoming celebrations.  Stay tuned…..

 

 

Soap Hope – Upscaling production helps us tackle Western Alaska’s economy

Who is Arxotica and What Do We Do?

ArXotica is an Alaska Marketplace^TM winning concept that literally started from the tundra up. The Sparck Triplets used start-up funds in due diligence to prove that Alaska’s high arctic flora would be a superior source material in cosmetic and skin care applications. Our R&D confirmed traditional ecological knowledge that tundra botanicals are micronutrient treasures high in antioxidants and demonstrate an efficacy and sense of wellness like no other. We’ve actually had customers cry when they’ve opened our packages for the way our story, sense of purpose and how our ingredients touch them.

Much like our ancestors, our little family is out in a roadless terrain the size of Illinois, bent in stoop labor to pluck petals and berries into containers. The only difference is, we engage these materials in innovative low temperature processes (so as not to burn off the nutrients) and appropriating them for cosmetic applications. Our roots may be provencial, but we are no cottage industry, we are serious in producing premier items rolling off the same lines as well known top shelf brands you’d find in major department stores around the world. Our committment to a sustainable resource and protecting a cultural identity while participating in the marketplace takes diligence, foresight and determination. These qualities have landed us in obvious outlets like the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Magazine, but we’ve also graced the pages of Alaska Airlines Magazine, The Huffington Post, and SELF Magazine and SELF.com.

Our Personal Story and Ultimate Goal

We grew up in Chevak, a Cup’ik community of less than 800 people in Western Alaska where community members continue to live a traditional subsistence way of life, fishing, hunting and gathering from the land around us. But living in an area so remote isn’t easy, the cost of living is high, and jobs are hard to come by.

ArXotica hopes to act as an agent of change to improve the quality of life and provide opportunities for our people, so they no longer have to leave their homeland to find work. ArXotica strives to produce products without compromising the integrity of our isolated culture and our remote, resource-rich land.

How You Can Help

We have come a long way in seven years to come out with the first of our formulated high end skin care line called Quyung-lii (in Cup’ik Eskimo, it means The Potent One,) but we need to expand our soap production and we have the source material to do it, just not the capital. Your investment would not only help us build brand awareness, but enable us to meet higher volume demand and distribution. And we need to do it if not in Alaska, then in the United States. We are proud to be Made in America. This is where Rock The Post comes in, this is another step in the long journey to establishing our place in the market.

Adventures in Lunchdome days 78, 79, 80

Whew….blogging is falling to the wayside lately.  Hard to find the time let alone the energy when working full time.  Today I’m home with Gege who was fevering last night and this morning, thus I have time to blog  So here’s a catch up lunchdome post for y’all….

Cece’s lunch last Thursday… W/W Chicken nuggets with organic ketchup, veggies with diary free ranch, chow mein noodles, and fruit for dessert.

Friday’s lunch for Cece… Natural hamburger sloppy joe, green beans, olives, orange pieces, p/b crackerwiches, and two vanilla wafers for dessert

Cece’s lunch today (Monday)…. W/W chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce for dipping, dairy free cheese quesadilla, veggies, and bowl of fruit for dessert.

Adventures in Lunchdome day 76 & 77

Gege’s lunch for monday… Peanut butter and honey rollup, carrot sticks and snap peas, grapes, crackers and granola bar for dessert.

Cece’s lunch for Monday… Baked chicken legs, carrot/celery sticks, snap peas with salsa for dipping, grapes, crackers and a peanut butter granola bar for dessert.

Cece’s lunch for Tuesday… (I got her a new container we’re going to try out tomorrow it’s stackable) Sloppy joe meat in the bowl, dairy free roll, french fries with organic ketchup in reusable container, snap peas, orange slices and two coconut cookies for dessert.

Adventures in Icedome, Lunchdome (days 72-75), and general catch-up post

Wow, am I behind on blogging or am I behind?!  Life has been busy here in the Strongheart household and the weather has been crazy here in Alaska.  Monday the 14th school and work were closed down for safety reasons, ie: this….

rain on snow = puddle covered glare ice!

So we stayed home and tried to stay busy….

made Gege a “Pretty pretty princess” dress but without a pattern it ended up more like a long ruffly shirt..shrug…she loves it!

Tuesday it was back to work and school….

Glenna signing in at Head Start

Look at the bugs, Mom!

learning how to do a somersault

then utter exhaustion after dinner…think they’re tired?

Gege and I have lunch at head start but here are a couple of Cece’s lunches last week (that I remembered to take pictures of)….

Today we’ve been playing fort in the living room and this afternoon I made playdough. Finally found a recipe that Cece won’t eat!!!

and I’ve been doing laundry and beading when I’m not playing with the girls or doing chores.

Adventures in Lunchdome day 71

Shredded rotisserie chicken with BBQ dipping sauce, spring mix salad with bacon pieces and homemade dairy free dressing, carrot and celery sticks, crackers and blueberries for dessert.

Adventures in Lunchdome day 70

Yeah we skipped a day b/c I forgot to do a post.  Yesterday was the first day with our new students in our new head start class so I forgot all about blogging.  Plus I walk to work and now Gege comes with me since she’s in our class.  Well being that we live in Alaska (just in case y’all forgot or are new LOL) I pull her in the sled.  Well I’m now pulling her about three times farther than I was before.  You combine that fact with lots of sand down now on the roads/sidewalks/walkways/parking lots that create a lot of drag/friction and coming off of vacation and getting up and down all day while teaching little preschoolers and I have been exhausted and frankly quite sore LOL  So bedtime has been coming early here in the Strongheart household.

Early to bed, early to rise?!  The girls are in bed at 7 p.m. and I’ve been going to bed at about 8 p.m. and then we’re back up and going again by 5:30 a.m. (5 a.m. for me)  But I’m lovin’ it!  Plus it’s a great work out, too!  Since I made some life changes (not dieting) back last year in May I’ve now officially lost 36 lbs and 23 inches overall.  I hope to get down to within 10-15 lbs of what I weighed when I joined the Navy 20 years ago, and I want to reach this goal by my 40th birthday.  So far so good!  I have a little less than 4 months left to reach my goal!

So anyway….back to Adventures in Lunchdome….bum bum bum…..

Cece’s lunch for Thursday (Gege and I now eat our lunches at the head start)
Breakfast for lunch! Yum!! Hard boiled egg, bacon pieces, hashbrowns, homemade dairy free blueberry muffin, a couple slices of a sausage patty, banana and some raisins.

Adventures in Lunchdome day 68…back from Winter Vacation…YEAH!

Well we survived 18 days of Winter/Holiday vacation…barely…sigh.  Long periods of time off from our regular schedule is …to say the least… difficult for Cece.  Not only was school out for Winter break but also all  therapies were closed for the holiday vacation AND her primary care provider went on vacation for the entire time too.  She did have a back up provider but that was only for three hours for seven days.  Cece just doesn’t understand why she isn’t going to school and why she’s stuck at home with Mommy and sister.

Overall it went well until Jan. 2 when her sneaky enamel deficiency rared it’s ugly head in one of her upper molars.  Without the protection of enamel of course the tooth decayed and broke.  I’m amazed how quickly this happened and don’t understand how neither her provider or I  never saw any signs until the entire corner broke off.  To further aggravate the problem her 6 year molar is trying to come through that same molar.  So this precipitated a visit to the dentist which was a new dentist because her regular dentist moved out of Alaska.

So we had to go to this new dentist, who is a male (remember since Segundo, Cece’s Daddy, passed away she’s had issues with males).  Although she did panic and try to bolt and cried, she overall did amazingly well.  The best she’s ever done at the dentist matter of fact!  She let him examine her teeth AND gave him a high five when he was finished.  So he confirmed the decay and will need to go in to take a better look so later in the month Cece will go under anesthesia so he can fix everything up.

The day after her tooth broke the neighbors clogged the sewer line up and it backed up into our kitchen sink…UGH!!  It was awful but the plumber made short work of that.  Thank Goodness!

Now vacation is coming to an end.  No longer will we be able to enjoy lazy sleeping in mornings and it’s back to our full schedule tomorrow morning.  The girls are immensely excited about going back to school tomorrow.  I am excited to go back to work and starting our new head start class on Tuesday!  YEAH!

So now that y’all are caught up with what we’ve been up to somewhat, we’ll dive right back into our Adventures in Lunchdome…bum bum bum…..

Teriyaki chicken, a rice star, carrots, baked beans, 1/2 hard boiled egg, fruit, crackers and a cookie for dessert. All for Cece’s lunch tomorrow (Monday)

Glenna has the same as her sister’s except instead of a tub of fruit she has raisins.

Happy New Year!

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 10,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 17 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Tropical heatwave….it’s a tropical heatwave

50 degrees warmer today than it was last week! T-shirt weather!

Season of giving…Can you help?

Kuya Qyut`anen Early Childhood Center

(Little Children of the Kenai River)

The Kenaitze Headstart is in need of donations.  I am hoping that y’all might be able to help them out.

The Center serves about 60 preschool children and 40 afterschool children.

Here is their wishlist:

Walmart or Carrs/Safeway gift cards (they prefer these over cash donations please)

A couple of 5 shelf wood book cases

3 heavy duty shelving units

6 heavy duty Tonka trucks for playground (trucks, pickups, bull dozers, etc.)

Two 45 gallon trash cans with hinged lids

30 rubbermaid cloth/metal/plastic organizer totes various sizes

three 2′ x 3′ foot floor size 24 piece puzzles

Other items are always welcome such as: books, art supplies, etc.

If you’re out doing some Christmas/Holiday shopping maybe you could throw a couple of items in your cart and send them this way.  This is the perfect time of year with all the holiday sales occurring.

So can you help me help the Head Start help the children this holiday season?  If so please send donations to:

Early Childhood Center
attn: Devin Johnson
130 N. Willow St.
Kenai, AK 99611

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need further information.  You can email me at: nunamiquayouth (at) yahoo (dot) com

Thank you in advance for any help that you might be able to offer!!

A Strongheart Christmas Morning

Comin’ downstairs.  Did Santa visit?

Wow, Look at that, Mom!

Open! Open!  Rip it open, Cece!

Look, Mom!  I got one too!

Rip that paper off!!

Way to go, Cece!

Keep goin’!

There ya go, Gege!

Yeah!

I did it!

OH! There are more presents INSIDE, Mom!!

What’s this?

It’s an Elmo….ummm….yeah I don’t know what it is either.
It came with bubble solution and it spins when you push the button so maybe it blows bubbles?

Look, Mom!  There are more presents in mine, too!!

What is it?

Cece likes it……still not sure what it is. LOL

Look, Mom!  It spins.

SPINS!!!

Glenna doesn’t know what it is either.

Wow!  1600+ stickers, Mom!

They’re princess stickers!

Oh, MORE presents!  YEAH!

I can’t help but be distracted by Cece’s excitement!

ooooo what’s this one?

opening….

WOW!!! My own Dora Camera!  aka viewmaster!

This one is hard to unwrap, Mom.

Not sure where to start.

Oh, here are the cards for my camera!

Slowly….but surely!

Gettin’ there…

YEAH!!!  It’s the Minnie Mouse Tea Set I picked at the store, Mom!

OOOH Another PRESENT, Mom!

It’s HUGE!

I spy a Princess…ooh yeah look there’s another princess in the present too!

YEAH!  My own Princess comforter!!

BUBBLES!!

I LOVE BUBBLES!!  Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!!!!  YEAH!

Open please, Mom?

Yep, I’m a princess!

Look ANOTHER present, Mom!

I found another one too!

BARBIE!!!

I love Barbie!

Wow, it’s a SPA Day!

OOH…. Look at mine, Mom!!

Beautiful!

Oh there’s ANOTHER present in here!

It’s a big one! And it’s soft too!

What is it?

DORA!!  Look it’s a Dora sleeping bag/blanket

I’m mesmerized with my new toy.

WOW!

Come on, Elmo!  Let’s hide in here!

PERFECT!  My own little sensory hiding spot!

I love it, Mom!

Oh, One more present!

A piggy bank!

Pig…oink….oink

Here, Mom!  A present for you…from me!

BEAUTIFUL!  The things you can do with macaroni!

Awww from Cece!

I’m busy doing her hair, Mom

Merry Christmas!

Cupcakes!

Well these were a lot harder to make that they looked in the pictures I found online.  LOL  but I think by the time I got the first 15 or so done I got the hang of it.  Can’t wait to enjoy them tomorrow! Merry Christmas, Y’all!

Truth

Cookies!

Today was spent baking cookies both for consumption on Christmas Day and also as gifts.  The girls helped some but Cece was more interested in eating dough than helping.  Tomorrow we’ll be making Christmas tree topped cupcakes during the day and then either tomorrow night or Christmas morning I’ll make a veggie tray, summer sausage/cheese/cracker tray, and deviled eggs for Christmas dinner at my sister’s.

So here are the finished cookies.  They are all dairy free cookies except for the chocolate crinkles which have a trace amount of dairy in them.

Yum! Cookies, cookies, cookies. Chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies and chocolate crinkles. All wrapped up nice and pretty.