Holy Tomato

I tried gardening, organic gardening for the first time this year. I had a VERY difficult start with all our rain, but all in all had a wonderful first year in the garden. I grew tomatoes, carrots, green peppers, cucumbers and zucchini. The most successful was by far the cucumbers! It was very enjoyable to go out in the afternoon and pick our vegetables for dinner that night. I made zucchini bread, lots of fresh tomato sandwiches and used the green peppers in a variety of recipes. Connie had asked me if I wanted to can any of my tomatoes around July. My tomatoes got off to a slow start, but I was interested in learning how to can. And boy did we can. I ended up buying a box from a farmers market and combining that with what I had in my garden and we canned 21 quarts. No small task for sure. Allison got in on the fun although I wanted to keep her out of the kitchen while things boiled and were transferred from the cooktop to the sink. And it was messy.....once we were done, I had little desire for ANY type of tomato product. But now that they are done I am enjoying making my own tomato sauce, soup and lasagnas. :)

Paging Dr. Booker......

Allison is full steam into imaginary play. We play beauty shop, restaurant, school, store and doctor ALL the time. It's amazing to see her little imagination just take us to places and scenes that I have never imagined. As far as my job goes, Allison knows that I'm a Doctor but not like Dr. Ben (her pediatrician) since he takes care of kids and "mommy fixes the broken people". When really when you think about it, is what I do. Along with that job, I do have pieces of various medical equipment around the house--electrodes, blood pressure cuffs, tubing and stethoscopes. Seemed perfect to get her her own medical bag and show her how to use them. It also has proven to be super helpful at the pediatrician's office.
This particular day, I had some extra gloves in my purse, don't know or much less remember why, but I did and of course she found them. She also got into the first aid kit and took out some 4x4's and coban wrap. It appeared to be a bad injury for her baby.

Happy 90th Birthday Great Gigi!

Great Gigi celebrated her 90th birthday in September, however we travelled to Indiana and celebrated the big event after the Booker Family reunion. Great Gigi lives in the very small town of Scottsburg, Indiana about an hour south of Indianapolis. We basically hung out at her house for most of the weekend and then headed to Great Gigi's party.
The first day that we were in Scottsburg we headed to the park and off to feed the ducks. All the cousins went and had a ball! I was worried that Allison would fall into the lake, but she didn't!



On the other side of the lake was a playground. Once we were out of bread and the ducks were well fed, we headed around the lake to go to the playground. Most of the playground equipment was donated by a local proprietor who owns the area's McDonald's. If he gets some new playground equipment, he donates the previous to the local park. Once we were there, we played and played! It was so much fun!





After an exhausting day at the park, we headed back to get ready for the birthday party. It was just a family gathering and the food looked good. I was sick, sick, sick so I didn't eat anything. Turns out before we left Indiana I had three awful spider bites on the back of my legs and I, Dr. Booker :), believe that the bites made me sick. I had no appetite but I endured dinner and was just trying to make it through the evening in one piece. Brent's mom and Aunt purchased a welcome book for folks to sign and leave messages to Great Gigi. Before dinner, we had a blessing by Jen and then Great Gigi opened her gifts. We all chipped in and got her a digital photo frame. Then Brent's Mom, Connie and Aunt Jeanne had a photo created to simulate a wedding picture for Great Gigi. She didn't have a wedding picture done when she married her husband, Bruce. They weren't able to afford it. The look on her face when she openend it was priceless! It was an awesome gift idea and something that she will always treasure!

Gymnastics

Allison has always been interested in tumbling, flipping and twirls. That may be due to my PT training--we do a lot of gross motor but honestly she does pretty well. We decided to enroll her in gymnastics for the summer. It was a perfect arrangement since the class was held on Saturdays which allowed Brent to attend and some weeks give Mommy a "morning off". Every week we were really impressed with her ability to jump on the trampoline while doing specific things with her arms and legs, swing on the rings, roll and spin. Her teacher Miss Eleana was from the Czech Republic. Allison hasn't been around someone with such a strong accent. Miss Eleana was tough. She even reminded me from time to time to point my toes. Really? She still does her routine on the carpet in our house and has asked to take classes again this fall. So we signed her up. We will see how that goes.

Bookerpalooza

As a kid I loved going up and down waterslides, I was super excited when I saw this slide in the pool of the Abe Martin Lodge. Of course my daredevil daughter embraced the challenge and went down several times! It was so fun. They also had a lazy river with a pretty strong current that Allison was able to "float" along with some help from Mommy and a noodle.

The next morning, we got up and went horseback riding. We were a little hesitant to see if Allison would actually get on the pony and go around the ring. But she did and then we went back the next day and rode with her cousins. That was fun.....Andrew's horse took off around the ring. I was with Jen aka the laid back parent and she "on the verge of freakin' out" began to flutter her arms and jump saying, Oh no, Oh no, OH NO! Eventually Steve barracaded his horse in the runaway horse's path and it stopped. We got a mouthful from the horse caretakers. It was quite a memorable moment. Only Andrew.

Bookerpalooza

Back in August (oh!) we traveled to Indiana for the Booker Family Reunion as well as an early 90th birthday party for Brent's Granny. We traveled 10 hours in the car with Allison. Not fun. We left after work after working a half day. We drove through Virginia, past JMU down to Lexington and then through West Virginia and Kentucky. Around bedtime, Allison very innocently asked me if I could put her to bed. So sad. I just told her to close her eyes and when she woke up we would be there. Which was true, but Allison didn't close her eyes until about 10 o'clock that night.....long day.
We arrived in Scottsburg, Indiana around midnight. This is where Brent's Granny or Great Gigi as Allison calls her lives. We quickly shuffled in and went straight to bed. Allison woke up to ask where we were and if she could go to bed now. Poor dear.
The next morning we woke up and Allison had her first Scottsburg doughnut. Think Krispy Kreme with filling.....and lots of sugar and fat. They are good but more than one makes my stomach turn.
Brent is totally addicted to them which is rare for him because he is definitely not a sweets kind of guy. We ate breakfast, had a quick visit and then back to the car to drive to the Abe Martin Lodge. This is a state park and is VERY nice. Accomodations and decor aren't my style but they had a lot of activities for little ones to participate in. Think Great Wolfe Lodge, reasonable......
Once we got there we got checked in, got organized and then went out to a picnic lunch with all of Allison's cousins. Surprisingly enough, we spent most of our time with Brent's brothers families, which made Allison's question, "Why did we drive all the way to Indiana to see my cousins Mommy?" oh very appropriate.
The next day we were off the big Booker event. Little did I know what was in store for me......
Let's just say the roads leading to our picnic shelter weren't exactly GI friendly, next add in some Indiana August heat and humdity, finally top it off with lots of water and swinging way too high on the swingset and the stage is set for puke. Lots and lots of puke. Allison was able to keep it down until after Aunt Misit's blessing and family photos but needless to say right before dinner she hurled all over me . More than once and with remarkable force and distance. We headed back to the hotel. Brent had to hang his head out the window to keep from puking himself. Once we arrived, we changed clothes, took several baths and went to bed. I was hungry......but lived off of snacks until Allison feel asleep. She dry-heaved all night but was back to herself the next morning.
The next day we spent most of it in the water park and tried to recover from the illness. I didn't get to spend much time with the Bookers, I was either taking care of a sick child or staying in the room while said sick child slept. I did manage some fun pool time though! This was the best part of the whole lodge. The entire pool area was inside (score one for fair skinned Bookers!) and every hour they completely emptied the pool and clean the decks. Very nice for us germaphobes.

Blog Backup

So summer is gone, fall is beginning to wind down and I'm very far behind with my blog updates. I am going to try and catch up. Here we go.........