Traveling with a Toddler

I have traveled a lot with G alone on quick trips. I was a little nervous to make a 4+ hour flight alone. We had a 3 hour layover in the middle of the flight. I was mostly nervous how I would manage all of our stuff on and off the plane. I had a car seat, stroller, and 2 bags. I had plan to just take 1 bag on the way home, but G insisted we had to take his blankie. I shoved it in his little back pack to avoid getting it drug through the airport. Once we got off the plane he wanted me once my hands were free. 

It worked really good to just take one bag. The flight attendants and passengers were really nice about helping us too. I would wait until almost everyone got off the plane before I even attempted to get off. I had to wait for the stroller anyhow, so it made sense to just wait. 

Look who I ran into at the Bismarck airport! It's Josh!!!

Watching the planes! 

Playing with his farm animals. 

I pack a lot of new toys for G to play with on and off the plane. He loves opening new things to play with. On the way home I packed too much. He ended up sleeping for an entire flight. It worked out great! I think later flights are the best. Toys and snacks are the way to travel with a toddler. 

Just a little excited to go home to see Da Da! 

Here is my gypsy cart! It REALLY worked fabulous! For one person this works. The Bob stroller is a beast! It hauls everything so nicely. When I needed to push G I just set him in the car seat and away we would go. If he wanted to walk I set my bag in the car seat, so I could hold his hand. I was so glad I decided to take the Bob with us. It worked great on the farm too. 

Happy 2nd Birthday George!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday to my amazing little boy! 

I have been able to spend about the past 6 months as a stay at home mom with G. It has been a change for both of us. I was use to going to work and G was use to going to day care. It took us a little bit to get use to staying home, but we have loved it! Our days at home, in pjs, playing and doing things around the house are our favorites. We try to go do some fun things each week. We like to go to the library for story time or fun toddler places. 

I love being there as G learns new things. He is starting to talk so much more. At times I just can't believe how smart he is. He is at the age now where I can tell him he has to do something before he gets what he wants. Pick up your toys if you want to watch that show. He picks them up. I love when he tells me he wants ice - that means he needs a drink of water. 

Instead of giving G a bunch of gifts we decided to take him Fairyland in Oakland and make some memories. We bought him a couple little things. He has everything he could ever need. He LOVED Fairyland. 

He wanted to eat his strawberries and wasn't into taking pictures. 

Fairyland has these boxes where you put a key in to play the fairytale. George LOVED this! He would ask for the key, so he could do it at each box. We listened to each box in English and Spanish. 

George calls all birds ducks. He had to touch this huge duck. 

We had to wait about 20 minutes to ride the train. As soon as he saw the train he kept asking to ride it. He waited very patiently for the 20 minutes until it was our turn. He didn't cry or whine once in line. As the train would come around he would wave and yell hi to all the people. 

He was done at this point. We were getting ready to leave. He was hungry and tired. He wasn't very into pictures. He wanted to have fun instead. I tried not to be a paparazzi taking a million pictures. We had so much fun. As we were walking around I felt so happy and blessed with my little family. I asked him if he had a great time and he shook his head yes.  

I can't wait to experience the next year with this little man. I love being his mommy!

Wordless Wednesday

Texas

A couple months ago we went to Texas. We went to see if we liked the area and possibly move there. Lacey came with us to check things out. We are all hoping to make the big move in the next year. 

George LOVED the beach! He had so much fun walking around the beach, playing in the sand, chasing the birds and even going in the water. 

We visited a rain forest one day. 

I love this picture! It is so cute how George is looking at Auntie!

Hey, Momma look there is a bird!

Wordless Wednesday

Why?

The above statement really hit me!  Over the past few years I've wondered why in the world some things have happened in life. Why have people behaved so terribly or hurtful? Why have I've been dealt such a bad hand of health?  Why did we struggle so much to have a child? 

Our lives are a big canvas that God is painting. Have you ever painted a picture by numbers?  There are times it's awful and ugly. Once the picture is done it looks so much prettier.  That is our life. We don't see the whole picture at times. We will only see the ugliness. During these times we need to remind ourselves that we need to wait. The picture is going to turn out beautiful if we are trusting God. So often we make things ugly doing our own thing. 

Throw Back Clothing

My mom kept some boxes of clothes from when we were growing up. I went through the boxes to find some stuff for George to wear. It was funny to see him in clothes I remember Bill wearing. Thankfully George could careless what he wears, so I can put him in any of these things. 

George wanted milk in the picture above. I told him if he smiled I would go get him some. This was the cheesy smile he gave me. Such a character. 

Wordless Wednesday

Dad

One evening I received a phone call from mom that dad was having chest pains and refused to go to the doctor. I called dad to find out what was going on. I told him it was probably a rib out of place and he should just go get checked.  I honestly didn't think it was anything. The next morning I called to check on him. He was getting ready to go to the urgent care. I asked him to call me once he heard. An hour and a half later nothing. I text mom to see if she knew what was up. I found out he was in the ER, mom was with him and Lacey was on her way. I feel it went down hill from there. 

That was such a hard day. I was scheduled to fly to ND in 2 days. Here I was in CA sitting on my couch in my pjs trying to take care of G while waiting for the news. The next day didn't get any easier. I got the phone call he would have to have open heart surgery. I was driving home from a doctor appointment just bawling. How does this happen? Dad has always been the one with good health. It is the rest of us that have health issues. I remember thinking that day I was so thankful he went in. If he had a heart attack he wouldn't be here. I just felt so numb the entire day. 

I wasn't sure if I was happy or not when surgery was pushed off until the day after we arrived. I kind of felt I just wanted the surgery to happen while we were on the plane, so when I arrived it would all be over. I am thankful now that we were all able to sit together in the waiting room. When he was out of surgery Lacey, mom and me were able to all go into ICU. I knew what to expect in ICU. It wasn't that long ago I was in there myself. I expected to see lots of drainage tubes, oxygen, etc. It was a whole didn't thing once I walked in. I lost it. I think it was the first time I let myself fall apart. I think for me it was relief he made it through surgery. I didn't cry too long because I didn't want that energy to be around my dad. I wanted him to get well, so I wanted lots of positive things around him. 

It is amazing how well he has done. He wasn't even in ICU a full day. The recovery is taking longer than he would like. He is not use to sitting around. Some days he gets stir crazy. Plus can you imagine spending most of your time alone and all of a sudden your grown daughter and toddler are now living with you. Your daughter is feeding you so many greens and "healthy" foods you are ready to throw up. lol I am staying with him for another couple more weeks. I told mom and Lacey to work while I am here. They may need to take time off once I go home. 

Lacey and I set up a Go Fund Me page for my dad. We want things to be easy for him as he recovers. We don't want him to worry about all the bills or farm things that need to be done. We also don't want him to worry about returning to work so quickly. He need to get well. 

Here is what we wrote for his Go Fund Me Page.

A couple weeks ago we received a dreaded phone call. Dad was in the ER waiting for follow up tests on his heart. After numerous tests it was determined he needed open heart surgery right away.  No one saw this coming at all. Thankfully it was caught before he had a heart attack because he probably wouldn't be here with us now.

The picture above was taken about 2 weeks after surgery. This is one of the tamest cows. She think she is a dog and loves to be scratched. We had to help dad fix some fences the day this picture was taken. Dad held on to his chest as we drove thru the pasture to fix a fence so his cows didn't get out. The rookie daughters set out to fix some fences with instructions from dad. Lacey hasn't ever fixed fence and it's been close to 20+ years since Becky has fixed fence. One of the first thing my dad worried about when they told him he had to have surgery was his cows. How would he take care of them, how would he make enough hay, and who would fix fence.

We (Lacey and Becky) have put together this Go Fund Me page to help out with medical expenses and to help with farm expenses. Our dad makes all his hay for the cows each summer. He isn't sure he will be able to do it all himself over the summer with recovering. Right now he can walk across the farm then needs to rest.  Recovery from a quadruple bypass is going to be a long slow process as we are all learning.

Go Fund Me - Barry Fischer

Kimi's

We have had the pleasure of eating at Kimi's a few times while we have been in town. One of my favorites is her pork chop on a stick with this amazing bbq sauce! I had her bring me a bottle of the bbq sauce to the house to use. I just LOVE it! 

Dad relaxing while he waited for his food.

Hey No No I am hungry too. 

George calls Nonna  No No. He will yell under the door for her. When I was putting this blog post together he came running to the computer yelling NO NO. He knows the big red food truck is NoNo's! 

If you get a chance check out Kimi's around North Dakota! 

Wordless Wednesday

Paleo Salads

It has been a challenge some days eating Paleo while I am in ND. I love German food! I try to avoid any of my favorite foods because I know I won't be able to say no. I did have some knoefla one day. Bad decision. I felt like garbage the next day with a killer migraine. Totally wiped me out. I have done really well though with eating clean while I am here. I have tried to get the rest of them to eat clean. Sometimes I get some snarly looks when I put stuff on the table. Everyone usually tries it and decides it isn't as bad as they thought it would be. 

Salad with pork chop and bbq sauce on the top. My mom makes her bbq sauce paleo friendly! 

Coleslaw with avocado. I really love coleslaw with bacon in it. I like to drizzle some honey in the coleslaw. It gives it a little sweet taste. We like sweeter coleslaw. 

Salad with peach, avocado, crab meat drizzled with some olive oil. This was really delish! George picked off most of my peaches. I did put some pecans over the top of it after I took this picture. 

I have to have readily available food in order for me to stick to Paleo. When I get really hungry I need something quick to grab. As long as I have food I can grab I do fine. I have been in a house with chips, ice cream, cookies and various other junk food. I have stuck to my plan all of but 2 days of being here.  

Holy Heifer!

Today we had a real problem. I spent years working in an office receiving phone calls with peoples problems. I said for years everyone needs to work on a farm/ranch to realize what a real problem is and how not to freak out over something fixable. 

Dad calls me from the pasture as I'm getting ready to take him to town. He says we have a problem a heifer put her head through a corral panel we are going to have to saw it off. I load up a bunch of hand saws & George into the pick up and drive out to the pasture. 

That heifer was going crazy. We tied the corral panel to the pick up. Dad tells me to drive some, so the heifer will pull her head through the panel.  That didn't work. Finally she wore herself out and laid down. I jumped out of the truck, grabbed all the saws and got to sawing. I sawed and sawed. Then she jumped around and the panel bent so I could barely saw in that place anymore. George was standing in the truck yelling MOMMA, MOMMA. I took my phone over to him & turned on Elmo. That helped for awhile. 

Dad was getting really tired and hot. I told dad we need some help. We drove to dad cousin next door to see if he could help, but he wasn't there. We went in the house to rest a little and get rehydrated. It was really hot at 7:30am.  Dad called a few neighbors. One said he would be right over with a battery powered grinder. 

Neighbor comes over and tried to start sawing on the panel. The heifer started to go crazy.  Neighbor ends up driving his truck on the panel to keep the heifer down. He was able to saw through the corral panel. Then the heifer flips. He had to move his truck before the heifer broke its neck or strangled itself. We were able to lift the panel, so the heifer was able to get free. 

Holy heifer what a morning!  Im thankful for neighbors that come to help in a time of need. 

Wordless Wednesday!

Help my Dad

Lacey and I put together a GoFundMe to help my dad out with medical and farm expenses. We are hoping to raise some money to help lessen the burden, so dad can rest for as long as he needs. Below is the link to the page. We greatly appreciate anything you are able to donate and the people who have already helped. 

https://www.gofundme.com/barryfischer

Wordless Wednesday!

Happy Monday!

My Monday started off different than Monday's in the past. I was woken up to a soaked bed from a toddler whose diaper leaked. He was running around the room with a wet onesie, chasing after a balloon laughing hysterically. I told him we needed to change him and boy did that stop the hysterical laughing. I rangled him into clean clothes and a diaper. I had to then wash all our bedding including toddlers blanket and pillow. He saw me putting the blanket and pillow into the wash which started an epic meltdown. The screaming continued as I got the washer running and everything stuffed inside. Finally I was able to get him distracted.  We had a couple more meltdowns before I insisted we put on our shoes to head outside. I mean we have to wear this child out because the energy he is using to scream is making me crave a bottle of alcohol. 

Art text me to see how my day was going. I responded with the following:

"It's Monday. Instead of dealing with crazy clients I deal with craziness at home. Woke up to a soaked bed. Epic meltdown because I washed his blanket. Lots of hysterical this morning. Now we are outside and he is happy. Lol"

My days are so much different than they were six months ago. I honestly love them. Even thought the morning started out crazy it turned into a great day. I wouldn't trade the meltdowns to go back to work for a zillion dollars. We played in the sand while we listened to Barney songs outside for an hour. What better life is there? 

Wordless Wednesday

OOTD

The picture above is a mint dress I bought at Forever 21 years ago. It is one of my favorite dresses I have ever bought. I got it really cheap, but it is made so well. Fully lined. Well it has hung in my closet for the past 3 years. I thought I never would be able to wear it again. I was able to zip up that beauty a couple weeks ago with no problem. I just got rid of a lot of clothes that didn't fit me anymore. I guess I should have waited because now they all fit. lol

Recently I saw a picture on Lane Bryant where a woman was wearing a maxi skirt as a dress with a belth. I decided I needed to hunt down the perfect maxi to wear as a dress. I found one! A Lularoe one mind you! Talk about comfy! I pulled it up above my bra, put on a belt, added a cardigan and some jewelry. I am not a fan of strapless bras. If you add something over the top you can wear a regular bra.