Just Thought I'd Share

A possible new treatment for many acute spinal injuries may be coating that blue M&M or in that blue bottle of Gatorade. There they go the Gators did it again. (Just in case in live under a rock, the University of Florida created Gatorade.)

Researchers from the University of Rochester found that non-toxic blue food dye (known as BBG) stops the cascade of molecular events that causes secondary damage to the spinal cord in the hours following an injury -- and the interruption could prevent paralysis.

Researchers studied rats, but hope this breakthrough could lead to treatments in humans. And because blue food dye is already known to be safe when ingested, the researchers see this as a promising development.

When a spinal cord injury occurs, a molecule called adenosine triphosphate, also known as ATP, is released in high amounts. The ATP molecules then bind to receptors that trigger irreversible cell death, which then leads to swelling.

What they found to be contained in this dye, blocks that receptor cascade, so you don't get the cell death and you don't get the swelling.

The research on rats did have one temporary side effect: The animals had a slight blue tint to their white fur and paws. What a small price to pay blue skin over walking Hummmm. No. Brainer.

Still, rats who received the treatment, the researchers reported, were able to recover much of their limb function, to the point of being able to walk again, though with a limp.



So speaking of Gators is anymore else like totally ready for football season? Because I am too excited! (SEC to be exact)

I have prematurely got out the car flags and dusted off the car magnets. And I may or may not have already posted the team schedule on my fridge over the family Easter picture. (What? I ran out of magnets!)

2008
#4 FLA (11-1) 45
#20 FSU (8-4) 15

(Just in case anyone forgot!!!)

Happy Four Year Anni To Us

It's our turn for the anniversary post! Yep, July 23, 2005 was our special day, and the hottest day especially if the air conditioning is not working at your reception site! Whole nother story. I think back on that day and want to do it all over again. Is that wrong? The dress, the hair, the flower's girls headpiece, the dress, the ring bearer's pillow, the homemade programs, and the dress. I really loved my dress! You know the day that Shally and Jason got married I was wedding gown shopping. Just thought I'd throw that in there. And my MIL told me that Christen Hinson said she was in David's Bridal and when she saw this particular dress she said,"Oh Mama that dress right there makes me want to get married all over again!" Then when my MIL described what she had seen, I told her that was the exact dress I had picked out that day. You can tell that we've been busy since then, because the dress still hangs in the closest at my parent's house. Every time I go to my mom and dad's I go in my old bedroom (now an office) and unzip the bag and run my hand over all the beading. Ok enough about all that. I will fill the rest up with pictures! Also, the song playing is the song that Christen sang at our wedding, just before I walked through the doors. I have never told her this but I was singing the words right along with her in the foyer of my church. The other song was our first dance (When I Fall in Love by Chris Botti). The first time I heard him play, he was on Oprah, he made me stand still in my tracks and I knew right then that was going to be the song.

My dress was not white, it was called candlelight and after we bought it I was having serious regrets, because every time I would picture the dress in my mind it looked browner and browner.

Just a little nervous

Hey, a girls gotta eat!

He totally looks nervous here.

Aww but look at Pudgy in the background-so sweet!

(It was probably my bridesmaid Amiee coming down the aisle when this was shot.)

Left to right: Aimee, Lynn, Tina, Me, Keli, Paige, Lindsay, Allyson

Ok, left to right here we go!

Chad, Travis, Austin, Nate, Robert, B, Pudgy, Joe, Micah, Josh, Randy Front:Lil' Bill

What a line up.A week later Micah cut his hair. Thanks!

Here I was telling B,"Hey did you notice that I said 'I Do' TWICE!"
Aaand here we were placing his ring on the correct finger-thank you to whoever LOL in the crowd, at the time I didn't even know why ya'll were laughing!

I never would have thought that I would have been as hands on as I was with the wedding. But you know how the saying,"If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself." Or stand over your mother and scrutinize every little detail while she does all the work. Same thing -Right?

But surprise, surprise,

I made the flower girl's headpiece...

and her basket...


all of these programs...
...the ring bearer's pillow (inspired by Donald Trump's ring bearer's pillow-could not find a picture to show you)
and hundreds of these cd wedding favors!
Some of my favorite pictures from this day are with my niece Allyson.






St. Thomas/St. John VI here we come! (or came)

Menu Plan Monday

Monday- Slow-Cooker Orange-BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches
(Also receives the "Longest Name" Award)
Chips

Tuesday- Grilled Chicken
Butter Noodles
Squash
Garlic Cheese Buscuits (Bisquick makes this and it's right beside the muffin mixes, I tried to find a picture of the package to show you but Betty Crocker didn't have one on their site.)

Wednesday-Chicken & Black Bean Enchiladas
(chicken tenderloins are BOGO at W/D)

Thursday- Creamy Ranch Pork Chops and Rice (Pork loins are manager's special too!)
Fordhook Lima Beans
French Bread

Friday- Pizza

Saturday- Beef Strognaff (B LOVES this so get used to seeing it often)
Cabbage
Black Eyed Peas

Sunday- Stuffed Shells
Garlic Bread
Salad

*Hint- I have recently learned to pick up a bag of chicken nuggets or a box of corn dogs for the kids on the weekend. Maybe this will help one of you.
-Seriously why did it take this long to figure that out (kids really should come with an instruction manual for moms like me that aren't all that maternal). It took a handful of Saturday lunch hours of standing in the kitchen with hungry kids until I finally came up with this idea.

One more mind boggling food related thing, as you know we were on vacay last week, last night I was in the kitchen preparing my sandwich for my lunch today and I realized we did not have any mayo. No it wasn't that we were out, it was missing. B asked if I had taken it to the lake with us. I replied "No, that's kinda an odd thing to take to the lake." Ok let's think the last time I used it was when I fixed potato salad for Hot dog night like 2 weeks ago! So, seriously if you broke into our house and stole our mayo please bring it back! Turkey with cheese and mustard is just WRONG! Oh, and are you the same person who brought our trash cans up to the house after garbage day Wednesday-just curious. But really I've been wondering.

The Lake 2009

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

If you will notice how Hayley placed her lamby on the headrest so that he could see too! So sweet. In a nut shell the weather was great, we ate M&Ms, we swam, ate snickers, we tubed, we ate M&Ms, we napped, Leightoe ran around most of the time with no bathing suit at all, we ate M&Ms, we were just plain lazy, and we read the People magazine special on MJ while eating M&Ms ok ok ok you all know me way too well, it was ME eating all those M&Ms! Hayley is now sportin' the freckles all the way across the nose and I think Leightoe actually acquired a tan! I didn't think that was possible with her gene pool.

This One's For My Work Angel

This probably isn't one of those stories you tell your kids just before tucking them into bed at night. But for your reading pleasures I just wanted to share with you what just happened to me at work.

As you all (all 7 of you) know I am a MRI Technologist. There are certain things you can and cannot take into the magnet room. (A MRI machine is essentially one big magnet) Some magnets are stronger than others, the one I am working on now is pretty mediocre on the scale of strengths.

I hope I am not boring you. I did not mean for this to be a physics lesson.

Anyhow, as I am explaining to my patient (who is an African American-yes that tid bit of info will help later on in the story) what he cannot take into the room, cell, watch, I said and I always say "It's probably a good idea to just empty EVERYTHING out of your pockets." He agreed and did just that.

So we proceed and go into the room. He gets on the table and something (that small voice inside my head, I call it my "work angel"-he and I have become very good friends) told me, as I noticed the deep pockets on his demin shorts, to ask one more time. "You don't have anything else in your pockets right?" I kinda have grown attached to my eyeballs and would like to keep them for a few more years- Amen?

He says,"Oh, wait..yeah."

I stick my hand out to get it from him so that I could lay it on the counter for him.

Do you know what it was?!?!

A GRILL!!!

Uh, yeah! As I put my hand out, and it was too late at this point, I could hear him saying "oh I haven't had it in my mouth."

Yeah right. He just keeps it in his pocket and pops it in before going into the Mall?

Why don't I just let the elderly patients hand me their dentures?

After that he handed over two lighters and a pocket knife. Not just any old regular little pocket knife, one that McGiver is probably carrying around somewhere.

Sorry, just had to share.

P.S. We are leaving for the lake Sunday and will be returning on Friday so I will get back with ya then. Love ya!

Wordless Wednesday

Fun Filled Fourth

First of all I hope you all had a great 4th of July! I am so grateful to live in this nation! Thoughts fill my mind year round of the privileges I have that many others don't. Just another glimpse into my head. Be careful it's scary in there!!!


Anyways, last week I looked forward to Friday like I was kid going to Disney World for the first time. I was super excited to be off Friday because we were going to the beach!! Here are some pictures from Friday afternoon.

Leighton was so proud of her sandcastle-she built it all by herself!

Daddys were entertaining while Mommys were sunbathing!

Hayley, Kate, Leighton

After the beach we went home and took naps. Later the kids went to spend the night with their Gaby and Papa, and B and I went to dinner and movie with our friends, Chad and Christy. And apparently I like run on sentences.

Ok I have to add this in. We all went to see the movie Hangover. I have to be honest B and I had plans to go see Proposal, and when the plans changed to Hangover I wasn't to keen on the idea because I'm a huge wedding sap. But then I found out that Hangover starts out as this guys Bachelor party I was game because surely there had to be some sign of a wedding in this movie.
I have never been so glad I saw a movie in my life! It was the funniest movie EVER!!!!

I would love to sit here and recite every part to you that I thought was funny, but I won't do that to you, plus I would be here til midnight because my typeing skils rnt that gr8.

After the movie we went and hung out with guy.

Them.

And these folks.

(Not pictured Josh and Joy)

Saturday we stayed around the house for the morning. Oh, I have to tell you, I drug out my old stereo, from when I lived with my parents, and put it in the playhouse. I have a video (that I will post on Wednesday) of Hayley singing to (I think) Taylor Swift. It is hilarious!

So they played while I spring cleaned the carport (What? Better late than never). Actually, if you want to know the truth I was embarrassed when Matt and Hollie came to the house Friday to pick us up for the beach, so the first chance I got I was throwing stuff away and sweeping and throwing stuff away.

Am I the only one like that? When you have someone stop by or company over and the house isn't exactly the way you would like, the minute they leave you start cleaning out of sheer embarrassment.

Yeah, I thought I was the only one.

Anyway, we are half way through the weekend.
So Saturday afternoon we went over to Ben and Kristin's for a BBQ and slip-n-slide.

(This picture is supposed to be at the end of this day.)

Happy Birthday to Ben (Yes that is a tea light candle in the cake!)
After the fireworks we all went back to Ben and Kristin's for more food and more fireworks!
I have to say that while we were at the Hilliard Airport waiting on the fireworks to start I felt like I was on the set of Hope Floats, you know that small town feeling. It was like all the people that had moved away and had their own families came back to Hilliard for the Forth of July. I could tell B saw some friends he hadn't seen in a while. It was really neat to stand back and watch.

Sunday we did the unthinkable. We skipped church and headed for the water park in St. Mary's.

On the way there we found out that the park didn't open until 1:00. We had about an hour to kill so we stopped and had lunch at Applebee's. One word to sum up that stop - STRESS! We rarely and I mean rarely take the kids to a restaurant. I bribed the girls that I would take them to the gum ball machine and let them get a piece of chewy, as Leighton calls it, if they ate their lunch. So after they ate we walked to the back of the restaurant and there were four canisters of chewy and tattoos and such. I could only scramble up .25, so that meant we would have to bite it in half. Hayley decided she wanted the chewy that had all the swirly colors on it. I said ok and we put the money in and turned the crank. She popped in her mouth and I said "Wait! Wait! Wait! Bite it in half." B had walked up after paying the bill so I handed the chewy to B and said here you bite it in half. He said, "No you." As I was about to pop it in my mouth I realized it wasn't chewy at all! It was a RUBBER BOUNCY BALL!!!!!! Hayley was thrilled that she had a bouncy ball, but I had to carry Leighton out of Applebee's screaming and crying.

After the water park it was back to Ben and Kristin's for our annual Sunday evening, hot dog night. (You would think they would get tired of seeing our faces, but as long as they invite us we'll keep showin' up.)