The new arrivals

Yesterday, my husband called me and said - there are two turkeys at Portal Way for us....

I was surprise - crazy surprised!!  We have been wanting to raise our own turkeys for years - the first year the order never came (turkey shortage - who would have thought!).  The second year we thought about it and thought about it and never placed our order. 

The third try - "surprise your order is in!"  My wonderful husband placed an order and never told me, probably because I was so disappointed the first time around. 

Today he got the "nursery" together.  Lamp up - check. Fresh wood shavings - check. New watering bucket and feeder (yippee! since our chickens have destroyed the others).  Feed - check.  Baby Turkeys - check!

And here are our new arrivals to the Ranch!

Maybe a male??  OH what fun this is!!!

The nursery - nice and toasty. 

Let the new adventure begin!

The First Half

The first half of my plan has worked.

Today, I went to the dentist.

I clutched my new paperwork of my "dental card" (when did the card end up to a page??) in my hand.

At the last minute, as I was packing up my stuff for the day, I told my co-workers I was a tad nervous...

I walked into the familiar dental office (I can still remember my first visit - even though I was two or three at the time...).  Same receptionist looked at me surprised and said "HELLO!  My goodness!  We haven't seen you in such a long time..."

I responded with, "Maybe we should try not to remember the date?"

Two second later she told me, "It was July 2009."

"Oh"

They did the works: x-rays, around the head scan (I am sure there is name to this contraption), cleaning, a good ol' polish, AND

a few fixings....

Yep I have a few cavities under cracked old fillings on the right side....

And the left.

He started with the right side - check and done.

I am almost done with my first thing on my list.  

By the way, I have been working on other things on my list and have accomplished a ton of things and have had some set backs (including an annoying cough that WILL NOT go away!).

But that is life, we have a few rough times that make our lives just a little difficult and make our souls stronger. 

I remind myself - to reach farther for my goals and imagine how I will feel after the hard work is done.

"Take your vitamins"

After our big scare in December, I was a tad nervous for Goose to get sick again.  Within 3 weeks after William getting out of the hospital, he was sick 2 times.  He was able to fight off each of the sicknesses like a champ.

When we went into the doc for the final check I asked the doc "Will his nose run all the time???"  

His response - "Expect him to get sick every 3 weeks."  

Um okay (with a nervous laugh)...

Sure enough every 3 weeks he has been sick and he has fought everything off like it was no big deal.

I have figured out some tips to keep us all healthy and ways of getting the vitamins down.

The basics to stay healthy:  Drink lots of water, sleep full nights (and naps), eat healthy and exercise.

The more difficult ones with a toddler:

1 - Take your vitamins.  Toddler taking a liquid multi-vitamin is not easy...  Mixing it with Odwalla Superfood saves the day.  And I give it to him at the beginning of a meal - he drinks it so fast I don't think he even notices that it taste a little funny.

2 - Freeze Plain Organic Kefir yogurt in extra mini ice cube trays.  Oh my this is the best treat ever and great teething relief!  At about 12 months old, little Goose decided he didn't like ANY pureed food and yep that included yogurt. I find that he benefits from yogurt so much from digestion to diaper rash, When he decided that yogurt was not yummy anymore, I came up with this little idea and it has been a huge change (and a fabulous dessert option). 

3 - Brush thy teeth (and tongue).  William went to the dentist for the first time last week and she taught us some new tricks to brush Gooses teeth.  The number one trick - hold the chin down while brushing.  I am able to get all teeth and the entire tongue - Yippee!  Sounds easy, but if you have a wiggle worm, then a little distraction and/or being held down a tad by another person helps tremendously.  Oh also another thing dentist said was for juice and milk - only 3 times a day for no more than 5 minutes - check.

Last week William ended up with the icky cough and snotty nose thing going around.  I called the nurse help line on Sat morning and she told me that the cough will last for 3 weeks and the nose will run for about 2 weeks.   It is amazing for a little guy who sounds so awful - how can he still have so much energy??  What a tough guy with an awesome immune system!

Watching the rain with Kee-Ka

Defeat

I think today was the first day I felt defeat, but I have this way of brushing it off my shoulders.

Today, was a tad different.  I have been running around, trying to catch my tail for the last three months: at work, at home, with Goose, with my husband, with me.

Yesterday, I got to work and took stuff out of my file cabinet to work on, thinking about my nice, beautiful long list of all the things I needed to get done at work by the end of the week....  Beep, beep (the best intercom noise I can make) "I need an override..." or "Can you help me?" or "How do you do this?"...

The other scenario was:  I took stuff out of my file cabinet to work on, and some one walks in and says oh I need to talk to her... Pointing at me...

The files I just took out was slowly being put back into my file cabinet  and locked (needs to be locked up every time I leave my desk or if I have a client there...).

This is all I accomplished yesterday - OH and telling one of my employees to QUIT telling me I was stressed!  I didn't feel stress, I felt EXTREMELY annoyed that all I was accomplishing was unlocking my drawers, taking files out, putting the files back in and then locking my door! 

Yesterday, was a day I wished so hard I had a door, could close it and get everything done productively!

Today...

I felt like someone didn't think I was doing a good job, from my understanding even complained!!!  I could NOT believe it!  I come to work early I leave at the same time everyone else does.  I chase my tail all day, go home, think of a plan for the next day, wake up re-energized, and chase my tail again.  All at the same time doing this at home too!!

DEFEAT!

I do a good job, my employers would not have done what they have done for me this last year, if I didn't do a good job.  Yes, I may not get my entire list done, but that is what tomorrow is for!

But this is the reason I brush it off and start over again:

I love you my boys!

Just a tad difficult

I am having a hard time with my new list.  Maybe I feel I am failing since there are a few things I am having a hard time with, so lets focus on the positive!

• I have made 2 appts with the dentist - one for a teeth cleaning and the other for a cavity(ies) I might have.  I also got in the swing of things - found a great dentist for Goose and made an appt for him too!  I have been using my Sonicare and flossing like crazy - BTW - I love Listerine! 
• I have been visiting my chiro and tomorrow is my first massage!
• I put together a podcast to teach me about meditation.  What a perfect place to do it - at work!!  Lets see how that goes tomorrow... ;0)
• I have increased my water intake, but my decrease of coffee has gone to a "large" cup of coffee (got to start somewhere - right??)

My routine is the most difficult thing to break!!!  I think that is the toughest part of my list of goals.  Maybe I need some sort of reminder - like a pinch to the arm or something like that...  

That is about it, but here are a few photos of Goose which make me smile:

A reminder spring is just around the corner - Yes, Goose is not in the picture...

Just a little kiss from Kee-Ka

Never leaves his side

A shadow!  Oh we adore the sun!!!

My new favorite new photo...  Sweet Goose - What a trooper this last week!!!  I am so proud of you!