Its been awhile...

My computer crashed a few weeks ago...yes, i've been freaking out. But I'm back in business. Here's what we've been up to...

Livi is loving school and doing very well. She went on field trips to the pumpkin patch and to the firestation. She had her first school party (fall harvest) and we will go to her first parent/teacher conference in two weeks! She dressed up as Ariel (the little mermaid) for Halloween!

Alex turned 2! She has been very busy stringing sentences together and starting to potty train. She was the most adorable monkey for Halloween!

Jason and I went on a bus trip to Chicago for our friends Time & Debi's 40th bday party! It was a lot of fun and we stayed out later than we have in a very very long time!

I am keeping very busy with work and Jason is still in Lansing during the week. We are enjoying the Fall weather and colors! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Fall Fling 2009

Last night was Church of the Mediator's Fall Fling. It is a silent auction/dinner that raises money for their building fund...we are building a new church. My whole family always goes (grandparents, aunt, cousins, etc...) and this year my in-laws came as well. It was good food, good company and a great auction. We are going to be going on a trip to Sarasota, FL, with my in-laws. Disney here we come!

A new favorite...

We started a new tradition at the "Durren Family Xmas Eve" get together. We all make gifts and then exchange. For example, last year I made homemade Kahlua. So, I made 8 bottles and all of the families got the same thing. My wheels are already turning for this year. While I was googling for some canning directions and how-to's, I came across a new website... www.pickyourown.org. This is one of my new favorites, you should check it out.

Silly girl.

Alex and I were headed to drop Livi off at school and then to the "Y" for mama's workout. Livi of course had her back pack and Alex needed a bag for the "Y". Livi passed on her princess back pack for her to use. Alex thought that it was simply the greatest thing ever. I thought I was going to have to strap her in the carseat with it on her back.

So here she is, this picture is pure Alex...leopard print hoodie, pink princess back pack (or pack-pack, as she says it) and her paci upside down!

Adorable.

10 things...

Here are 10 random things about me...
1. I truly believe (for me anyways...) blond is better
2. I break out in hives A LOT...stress, excitement, confrontation, nervous, etc, etc, etc...
3. I love my job, even though its hard to always act like it
4. I love being a domestic diva
5. I wish I owned my own business...probably a bakery
6. I love color but my house is very khaki
7. I love my husband but he irritates more than anybody else
8. I wish I went to church more often than I do
9. I think that if you are a provider of health care you should receive it for free at the place in which you provide....ugh to health care bills
10.I really do care what people think...

Off to school on the bus...

Oh yeah...

We went on our first trip with the camper we bought nearly 2 years ago! It was fun and we learned a lot. Flooded the camper a little, couldn't get the tv to work and didn't get the awning pulled down. But, all in all, it was good and we will do it again. We went to a Jellystone, Yogi Bear campground and the facility was awesome. It was cold and a little rainy but the kids didn't care. They had a blast and that is why we went in the first place.

School Days...

The top 3 things I first thought of today about Livi starting pre-school:

1. Thank God! She needs rules and a good strong schedule. She needs to be challenged a little more with learning to keep her interested and out of trouble.

2. I'm excited that Livi will be making new friends. These could be the people that she is friends with for many years to come and that is awesome!

3. Oh my God! I can't believe that I have a daughter old enough for school. Yikes, my "baby" is grown up. sigh, tear up and then get it together!

ugh...

My kids are testing me today. Livi with her craziness and Alex with her constant fuss from the hurting ears. I feel horrible for Alex and the hurt and Poor Livi is super crazy cause the WEATHER IS HORRIBLE, and she couldn't go outside and play all morning. But, honestly I think that going to camp was tiring for me and I didn't have any "time off" before hand and I haven't really had a rest since we got back. Every mommy needs to take some mommy-time and I am simply not getting any. My only break from momming-it, is at work at my full-time job. Yikes. I need a mama day, to just be ME. Hopefully I will recognize myself when I get it.

EYC 2009

Livi modeling the 2009 Camp T-Shirt. Theme: Filled with the Holy Spirit.

Livi at lunch! She loved being in a cabin with the Pumpkins (Staff kids).

Alex loved to hunt for frogs outside of our cabin, the Med Shed!

All of us girls ready for the banquet on the last night. Aren't we fancy?

The girls and I just got home from church camp. I was Nursie for the week, Livi was a member of the Pumpkin Patch (the staff kid cabin), Alex was simply cute and my Dad was there to help with Alex, organize my med shed and play music for the campers. It was a GREAT week. We had 100 or so campers from 3rd grade through 8th grade. The place (Camp Newaygo) was packed with Episcopalians! Yahoo! The theme was "Filled with the Holy Spirit", and I think that the week was just that!

The best part of this camp for me is knowing that Livi and Alex will "grow up" in this camp. I have been going to this camp since I was in the 3rd grade and still have relationships with many of the people that I met when I was only in elementary school. Seems like the friends that you make at church camp are truly friends for life. I am glad that my kids can share in this!

We had a wonderful staff, that love to work with kids, share God's word and most of all have FUN! We certainly did have crazy fun. It was exhausting, but we made it thru and now we are home to gear up for the school year. Yes, that's right, the school year. This is Livi's first year in school...preschool. She will go 4 days a week, for a half day. The kicker is, she will ride the bus. She is very excited and Mom and Dad are a little anxious and nervous. I am excited for her but its a little sad that she is growing up so fast. We will be buying her "school supplies" this week. She could burst she is so very excited about the whole thing (mostly the bus riding). I will keep you posted on the goings on of school...

Before school starts we are going to go on our first Paturalski Family Camping Trip. By "camping" I mean, in our travel trailer with a full bathroom and beds for everyone, air conditioning and a kitchen. We are going to a Yogi Bear Campground in Indiana that has a toddler water park, a small lake and many playgrounds. I am very excited and hoping that all goes well as this is our first outing with the camper!

Just a quick cute picture of Livi to make you smile! I am headed to camp and I am taking with me...Livi, Alex and my Dad. I am going to be the camp RN for the week. Livi will be in the pumpkin patch, ie: the staff kid cabin and Alex and my Dad are bunking with me! Hopefully it will be a good and relaxing time. My mom and sister will return from their week at camp today, and sounds like they had a good time. I will be sure to post some good "camp" pics when I return!

A pic me up!

I just needed a cute picture to brighten my day (and yours). This is Alex one year ago at Church camp. We are starting to get excited about camp this year. I am going to be the camp nurse again, Livi will be in the pumpkin cabin, Alex will be with me and my dad, who is coming to help with the kids, have fun and play his guitar. Alex has grown up so much from this picture. She will be two soon and I can barely believe it! What a cutie. She still makes funny faces like this one. I love it!

7/4/09

The first adorable picture of Alex, is at Houlihan's in Mishawaka. We went with the whole Paturalski clan for brunch on Sunday before Brian had to head back to Florida. The food was great and we were in a room with essentially no other people....so we didn't disturb too many with all of the kids (Jason's sister Jen was in town with her three too!)

The bottom picture is of us waiting for the fireworks in BerrienSpring, MI. We took Livi and our neice Kaitlin. They were so good while we waited and we sat in a very non-crowded spot. We were far enough away that the noise wasn't too bad, and no one was scared. It was perfect!

After we did Houlihan's on Sunday, we went to my parents' house for an afternoon BBQ with the Durren family. It was really great to see everyone....Rachel/Jack, Jeremy, Zach/Jen, Jenna/John and kids, Aunt Amy, Gram/Gramps, uncle Brian (my mom's little brother) us and my parents. It was great food and great people.

Oh yeah...the flag cake was a delicious success.

Happy 4th of July!

I found this cake on the cover of Family Circle magazine this month. It is a light and fluffy lemon cake with strawberry swirls inside, then with homemade lemon frosting. Perfect for a Fourth of July cookout!

Yummy...

Thanks to my friend Kari for giving me the "Crab Melt" recipe. Its a Weight Watchers recipe and it is definetly a keeper for our household. Lately I've been cooking some new and interesting foods. I can usually get Livi to try it and like it, but tonight was a no go. However, my mother-in-law and I decided that this will be a recurring recipe for us!

Oh yeah...Jason works out of town Mon-Fri and on the nights that I don't work, we have dinner with my in-laws. Its wonderful cause they are wonderful.

Here's the recipe for anyone who wants to try a bite.

Crab Melt Sandwiches

2 8oz packages of crab (pulled apart)

1/4 cup roasted red peppers minced

1/3 cup low fat mayo

2 tsp (more if you like) dijon mustard

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

4 slices pumpernickel or rye bread

4 slices low fat swiss cheese



Mix all ingredients except the bread and cheese. Spread evenly between the four slices of bread and top with swiss cheese. Put under a preheated broiler for approx 3-4 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly.

Enjoy!

5 WW Points.



I served the crab melts with corn on the cob (1 WW Point).

Yummy!

Summertime.

Summer is finally underway. There was so much rain in May and the beginning of June that I feel like summer really just started, and yet it is almost half done. Ugh.

Livi is just finishing up TBall. I think that she is secretly happy its almost done. Its a little hot for her to be standing in the outfield. And lets face it, there really isn't much baseball in T-Ball. But there is a whole lot of cuteness. Its fun to watch, and she is already better than she was at the first game, so we will call is a success.

Alex would live outside if you let her. Thank goodness for good sunscreen. That girl literally wants to be outside at all times, no matter how hot it is! She loves the water and will flop herself into it at any moment.

I ordered a swingset for the backyard a couple of weeks ago. It has arrived and is in many pieces in the backyard. Hopefully Jason will have it put together before too long. I think that the girls will be spending lots of time playing on it!

No huge vacations planned for the Paturalski family this summer. We are going to go on a little camping trip in August (our first trip with the camper) to a Jellystone/Yogi Bear campground! I can't wait!

Work is tough this week....

Work is tough this week. As an ICU nurse, you never want to have to walk into work in plain clothes and be a visitor...a decision maker for a child who is unconscious. Never. I never want to sit next to my child while she lays in an ICU bed unconscious. Its almost unthinkable. Well, not this week it isn't. As I write a co-worker of mine is sitting next to her daughter as she lays in an ICU bed. My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family continuously this morning. She is being a very strong woman and I will lift her up in all the prayer I have today. Every thought...she is in my every thought.
I am glad that I am a nurse and am able to care for people and their families in their greatest moments of need. But this is tough. Our ICU has been rocked hard the last year and half. Jeni's very tragic and sudden death, Angie's husband and now Corene. Its tough. I know that we do what we do for a reason, but its tough to keep a good perspective on things.
As hard as it is to be at work, its seems to be even harder to be at home today. My thoughts are in the ICU. It will tough to be back there tomorrow, but I will. And I will be strong. But I sure will give a lot of hugs and kind words. Cause you know what...I am a nurse, and that is what we do.

Here I go...

Here we are. Jason, Olivia, Me and Alex. This is our cute family. I'm not quite sure what all I am going to use this blog for, maybe....keeping you updated on our kids, sharing my experiences with weight watchers (i'm a new user) and using this as an outlet when my job gets stressfull, fun and challenging (i'm an ICU RN) .

We live in small town Michigan. The bottom of the mitten. Good ole' Bucktown...Buchanan, MI. We both grew up here, I went to college very close to here and our parents live close by. We moved when we were first married and three years later when we had Olivia, we knew that we needed to be close to family to raise our kids the way we envisioned. So here we are, and dare I say I'm glad we are here and I love our small town.

Since we've moved, we have done a lot...I fell in love with trauma nursing and the role of the preceptor, we had another daughter...little Miss Alex and Jason has spent a lot of time working out of town, thanks economy!

Our kids are 4 and 1 1/2. Livi is miss personality, she likes to tell you how it is and then snuggle you to smooth it over. She's a negotiator with a smile. She is excited about riding the bus to pre-school this year (mom and dad are freaking out!) and making lots of new friends. Alex is a love bug who is in love with doing what her sister is doing. That being said, we are starting to see a lot of Livi come out in her. She was our calm, passive girlie, but she is starting to grow out of it and its pretty cute to watch her stretch her wings. She loves to use the potty and loves to play outside. We had originally thought that we would call her "Lexi", so that we would have a Livi and a Lexi. Cute, right? Well she hasn't turned out to be a Lexi, for now she is Alex or "big Al". We'll see what she becomes....

Besides my kids I'm sure that I will be writing a lot about what I am cooking. I've recently started to love cooking. Those that know me well know that I've always loved baking. Since I've signed up with Weight Watchers I've started cooking interesting things and I'm loving it. So, I'm sure I'll be sharing our food journey with you!

Then theres my job...I've always been a critical care RN, but when we moved back here to Buck town I ventured into the world of TRAUMA. I love it. I work day shift at the trauma center near here. We have a great staff and a great educator who has inspired me (and cohersed) me to spend most of my time orienting new employees. And mostly new-graduate nurses for that matter. I love it! I'm lucky to have a job where I love my role right as it is. I also like to talk our unit up quite a bit, so I'm sure you will read a lot about us!

Thats it for now folks, stay tuned...I'm just getting started!