smart mommy solutions

new deployment

2009-06-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

My husband is now going to be going to Iraq for a year. He leaves in July to South Carolina, then to Kuwait in August. Looks like a little trip to South Carolina is in order. That sounds like a fun final trip of the summer before school starts.

"milestone"

2009-06-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

Yay, I just finished running a full mile. I have been slowly adding on to my run each day, and today I was able to finish a full mile without stopping to walk. Now to keep that mile and slowly add another mile a piece at a time. It feels so good to have a goal achieved.

another summer activity

2009-06-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

Last week my husband took the kids to the Bass Pro shops summer camp activities. It was pretty cool from how it sounds. They got pins for completing a bird watching course, and there are camping courses, a laser shooting gallery, crafts to do, s'mores in the evening. If you live near one, you should check it out.

summer vacation activities

2009-06-17T18:01:00.000-07:00

Since my husband is now job hunting, he has time on his hands while the kids are on summer break. Yesterday was my day off, so we all went to the San Diego Zoo together on spur of the moment (we have passes). We also were able to pick up my daughter's best friend on the way to the zoo. It was a beautiful day. Here is a picture of the tigers.

They were having a nice snooze right by the glass. The zoo has added a new elephant exhibit that is really cool. It is a mix between extinct animals and fossils, and the enclosure of the animals that are current right next to a model of the extinct animal that it is closest to.

Then today, the kids went golfing with their dad. I bet they all go golfing again tomorrow. My kids have their own clubs that their dad bought them. At least many times his golfing is bonding with the kids.

Submitted product idea

2009-06-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, many may not know that I have a baby product that I invented, manufactured, marketed, and have it in a couple of stores (and web sites). Any way, I just submitted another product idea to Big Idea Group for a product hunt that they are having. If anyone else has product ideas, this could be a way to go. Here is the web site http://www.bigideagroup.net/inventors/index.htm . We'll see if my product is one that the manufacturer likes. I think that it is perfect for them of course. I won't find out until November or so, so it will be a wait before I can update (which I will probably forget to do if they don't pick my product, but definitely will if they do pick my product).

photoshop art

2009-06-10T19:33:00.001-07:00

Here is some photoshop art that I have been working on. I'll probably hang them in my house somewhere.

deployment cancelled

2009-05-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

It is official. My husband's deployment to Afghanistan has been cancelled. This is good, because Afghanistan is not a safe place. On the bad side, now he has to go out and find a job. He may go ahead and take a temporary Navy job. There is a Navy job opening for 2 years in Norfolk, Virginia. That could be fun to experience Virginia. The only drawback is that since he is reserves, the Navy doesn't move his family with him, so either he goes alone and we visit, or we move ourselves (which costs money and is a pain). Either way, it is better than Afghanistan.

Long weekend, deployment update, and blog award

2009-05-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

Where to start? We went to Yosemite for the Memorial day weekend, and had a great time. Boy are we exhaused. A lot of hiking, bike riding, and walking. It is a tradition to go with my husband's family every year for this long weekend. My husband's current deployment orders to go to Afghanistan were cancelled the day before, so he got to go. I am so glad that he didn't have to miss out on the fun. Now we will have to see this week if they are going to issue new orders or if he will have to start a serious job hunt.

The blog award that I received was from Nicol at Classy and Sophisticated. It is the lemonade award, and about having an attitude of gratitude. I am definitely thankful that our whole family could be together for this long weekend. Here are the rules to the award.

1.Put the logo on your blog or post
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs that show an attitude of gratitude
3. Link to your nominees within your post
4. Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received this award
5. Share the love and link to this post and the person who nominated you for the award
6. Tell us how you've come to have an attitude of gratitude

I am passing the award on to Typhoons Geckos and snakes oh my, just a girl, heart on the line,

I think that is a good start for my first award thingy. I can't spend too much time getting it all out right now.

exercise

2009-05-21T06:25:00.000-07:00

On another note, I have gone jogging every morning this week. It feels so good. I know I can keep this up. This will certainly help my weight loss goals.

deployment, and new camera

2009-05-21T05:21:00.000-07:00

My husband is supposed to report to San Diego today for his pre-deployment stuff. We heard a rumor though that all Navy orders to Afghanistan have been cancelled. They checked my husbands orders, and the official word is that they don't know. He will go down there today and find out if they have been cancelled or modified (he will go somewhere else), or if he is still going to Afghanistan. We hope they have been modified, and that he will have the long weekend off. We have a yearly ritual with my husband's family of going to Yosemite on Memorial day weekend. We were all going to go without him. It would be GREAT if he could come too.

I have said all along that When my husband gets deployed, I will be getting a new camera. Well, since I worked a lot last month, and my paycheck is bigger than usual, I got myself a new camera yesterday. I wanted to play with it in Yosemite. I got the new Canon EOS T1i. I can hardly wait to learn it all. I also found this cool product called a bamboo tablet. You use it with photoshop to edit pictures, but you use the pen on the tablet instead of the mouse. You can paint and draw in photoshop with it. It looks really cool, and I am going to try it out. Here is the Amazon link.

one week left

2009-05-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

We have one week till my husband has to report to San Diego for his pre-deployment stuff. We will try to squeeze in as much together time as possible. On another note, I took the car to get washed today, and the house was cleaned. Boy does it feel good to have it all cleaned.

Washing toys

2009-04-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

I am a pediatric Occupational Therapist, and I treat kids in their homes. This means that many times I bring my own toys to work with. It is such a pain to have to disinfect the toys after each use. Sometimes I will try to only use one toy with one kid so I don't have to clean them as often. Just a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly had a lightbulb go on. I now put my plastic toys (most of them are plastic because it is easier to clean) in a lingerie bag, and put them on the top rack of the dishwasher. It works like a charm. I just dump them all in one big bag, run the load of toys, lay them out on a towel to dry, and then sort them into the right container. So much easier than washing them all by hand and bleaching them. especially when you have the million piece marble ramp. I could post a picture, but it would just be of my dishwasher because it is washing toys as I type.

projects

2009-04-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

I have a whole bunch of projects in the works, and my schedule has gotten lighter, so I might actually have a chance to finish them soon. Then I can post them. It is best to have the before and after pics, not just the before pics, which is all I have right now. On another note, I have decided to jump on the bandwagon and open an etsy store. I have some photographs in there right now, but I have plans for some other stuff too. I have to get them done first though. the store is www.tmcadapt.etsy.com.

pictures, modified

2009-04-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

I am going to print these pictures and group them together. I think that they turned out pretty good.

our dog had surgery

2009-04-15T12:07:00.000-07:00

My dog has been limping for a while, and I could not determine a cause of the limp. We took him to the Vet, and he had to have x-rays. It turns out he had a torn cruciate ligament in his right back knee. He just had surgery on Monday and is hobbling around on 3 legs. He should be walking on it in a couple of weeks, and hopefully soon will be as good as new.

nice photos from the weekend.

2009-03-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

My husband and I went to the beach this weekend, and checked out the tidepools at Laguna. Here is a sea anemone.

This picture is just some succulent flowers that had a bunch of bees on them. I think that I caught the bee well.

Tadpoles

2009-03-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

Two of our tadpoles are full fledged frogs. They are not climbing the walls of the terrarium, so I think that they must not be tree frogs this time. This is definitely different from what I am used to. They are just sitting in the shallow water part, so they must like to stay in some water. I may have to build a little pond in the back yard to make a natural home for them. Here are pictures of last year's tadpoles. I didn't taken pictures of this year's tadpoles, but I do have some of the little froglets.
This tadpole turned into a pacific tree frog. He climbed the sides of the terrarium and must have pushed the screen up because one morning he was gone. Hope the dogs had a nice snack.

This is a picture of last year's terrarium set up. It is very similar this year. Next are two pictures of this year's froglets. There is still one tadpole in the deeper water, but he is hiding and I can't get a picture of him.

I don't know what these guys are going to be. My son's teacher collected them from a stream in the mountains. She thinks they are some kind of bullfrog. They are definitely not climbing the walls, so they are not tree frogs like last year's. After looking in my amphibian book, I think they might be a southwestern toad.

I love nature.

As it happens, today is metamorphosis monday on a blog called between naps on the porch. Go visit and see other metamorphoses.

plane crash in Montana

2009-03-24T05:27:00.001-07:00

I just found out that I knew some of the people that were killed in the plane crash in Montana. It is so sad, and my thoughts are with their families and loved ones. I went to high school with some of them.

Spring Break

2009-03-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

We are on spring break this week, and I have been having the kids do some cleaning and organizing in their rooms. I am also very tired this morning because I stayed up way too late reading last night. I started the book Twilight which I have had for a while, but have been avoiding starting because I knew I would get sucked in and I needed to have time for reading. Spring break is the perfect time.

mail

2009-03-19T16:11:00.000-07:00

I don't like getting the mail from the mailbox. Any one else? Once I get the mail out of the box, that means that I have to sort it and do something with it. As long as it stays in the box, I can ignore it. I like to ignore it for as long as possible.

grasshopper

2009-03-08T16:06:00.000-07:00

I just thought that I would post a picture that I took, because I like it. Actually several pictures. These are from a walk that my daughter and I took last week.

Therapy chair

2009-03-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

The little therapy chair that I made here worked great with the little guy that I made it for. I am thrilled, his mom is thrilled, his nurse is thrilled, and his PT is thrilled. I love the satisfaction I get from my job. Next week I am going to make him some splints, one for drawing, two for upper extremity weight bearing, and two to stretch his forearms into supination.

deployment is official

2009-03-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

It is official. My husband received his orders this week. He is going to Afghanistan for a little over a year. At least there is no question now, and we can work on the game plan.

home made charging station

2009-03-01T04:52:00.000-08:00

In my continual efforts to manage the chaos, I have been looking at charging stations for cell phones, ipods etc. The ones that I have found are $40, and that is at a discount store. I just couldn't pay that much. I found the materials, and I made my own for $6.00. I am quite proud. Here it is, and then I will tell you how I made it.

I found the wooden box unfinished at Michael's for $6.00. I made a frame around the inside with foam core that I already had, and made the top part out of foam core covered with scrapbook paper, but fabric would be good. I cut a hole in the back of the box (with my dremel) for the cord to come out. You have to remember to make the notches in the top part of foam core before you cover it or you will have to rip off the covering and do it again (it's easier the second time though). Here is a picture of all of the materials.

sign beautification

2009-02-28T07:12:00.000-08:00

Look what I did to this sign that I have. I got the sign at home goods quite a while ago, and it was kind of plain. I have been looking for a frame to go around it, but it is a hard size to fit. I found two frames that could be put together and glued, and then the sign placed on top. (there was a little space showing so I put some covered foam core between). I'm not sure I like the mat color on the foam core, but will deal with that later.
First the before.

After