Check out this video!

This is a video my friend Lara took. Her son Henry is in the middle, the baby on the left is my Anna, and Jonathan is the one on the right, off camera, throwing the bath sponge at Anna. It is one of the cutest bathtub videos I have ever seen. I could not get the sound to work when I watched it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACdGgbLBMgI

Carrot Cake

I made a carrot cake today for my sister-in-law Janenne's birthday get-together. I think it was really very good, and a little different than any I have ever had. Really moist and dense, but not oily or heavy at all. I think the coconut and pineapple and the buttermilk really did something special.

Carrot Cake

2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk (I used lowfat buttermilk)

2 cups finely grated carrots (about 5 or 6)
1 cup flaked coconut
2/3 of a 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple, drained

2 teaspoons baking SODA
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 by 13 baking pan.
In a large bowl, mix sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk. Add carrots, coconut, and pineapple.
In a small bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, then stir into carrot mixture in the large bowl.
Pour batter into pan. Bake for 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. I would check it at 30 minutes though, I used a very dark metal pan and I only cooked it for 30 minutes and it was perfect. Take out of oven, and wait for it to cool before frosting with:

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar

Cream butter and cream cheese till smooth and blended. Slowly add sugar and beat until smooth and spreadable. I put my cake in the freezer for a little while to cool it down before frosting it. I would also recommend putting it in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving.
Normally I would only put half this amount of sugar in my cream cheese frosting, but the cake was not as sweet as carrot cake can be sometimes, so this extra sweet frosting was perfect.

My Appointment

My appointment today went well. I liked the Dr. a lot. He was very kind and a good listener. He ordered more tests. More antibody tests and something to do with muscles. But I think, pending the results of all of these new tests, that he is going to wind up saying I have fibromyalgia, which is much, better than the alternatives. So! He gave me some medicine that is prescribed sort of off label for fibromyalgia. He wanted to give me something to help with my crazy sleep, but I told him I was still nursing. He told me that I need to stop it, in a nice way, of course. I need to wean, and I know I do! My other doctor told me that three months ago. I just don't want to. Also, it just seems so wierd. Like it has been such a huge part of my life for over two years now. I feel like it would be like asking me, could you just stop urinating? Gross comparision, but that's how wierd it seems to me. So I am feeling a little calmer today, and a little more hopeful. I read my blog from last night, and I think I was being a little dramatic. I am just emotionally wrung out from feeling so bad for so many days in a row. But hopefully, with the right medications, I will carry on!

Maybe an answer???

Tomorrow is my appointment with the rheumatoligist (how to spell). I have been waiting five weeks to get in, and it has been three months since I first went to the doctor at all. I am a little nervous, but I am mostly just tired of worrying and even more tired of feeling awful all the time. I have tried very hard to act like I am doing fine all the time (except to Dave; he sees the real me) but I am just physically miserable and emotionally miserable from feeling bad day in and day out. I have not had a single good day in months. I wake up and I feel bad; I go to sleep and I feel bad. I sleep ten hours and I feel terrible, I sleep four hours and I feel terrible. Resting my leg against the couch hurts. My hands hurt all the time, my wrists hurt all the time. I have a fever right now and a mouth full of canker sores. I feel every single day like I am coming down with the flu. Everything hurts. Having Anna crawl around on me is like having a 200 pound person stomp on me. Am I being dramatic? I really don't think I am.
I think my Mom thinks I am depressed, and to me honest, I probably am. I can't do what I want to do with my time, with my kids, with my house, with my life. I am tired of being sick and sick of being tired. I dread being around people, like going to my small group which I love, but I just dread going because I don't feel like I have enough energy to act okay. I am a mess! A mess, I tell you!!!!!! And yes, I KNOW it could be worse. I absolutely know that, and I am so grateful that it's not, but at the same time I think it could be a whole lot better.

Ring-Carrier and Flower Baby To Be!

Jonathan and Anna are so excited to be in their Uncle Cory and Aunt Erin's wedding in May! Jonathan is going to be one of the ringbearers, which he calls "ringcarrier", and Anna is going to one of the flower girls, but she insists that she will be a "flowerbaby."

We got Jonathan's suit in the mail the other day and he wanted to try it on. Anna and him looked so cute putting his tie on together. I can't wait to see them on the big day! Our niece Justine was putting Anna, Jon, and Trystan through wedding drills the other night. She was having them practice with pretend rings and flower petals.