Patchel's Place

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Going Green

I've been thinking about homemade cleaners for a while now and decided that some heavy duty cleaning may just send me into labor. False. But I did try something new that worked really well. The designated chair Elliott sits in to eat at the table is absolutely disgusting! She literally gives herself a facial with whatever she's eating and every time her hands make the rounds to her mouth a little more food gets in it. I don't know what her dislike for utensils is but at least she's not a picky eater. So I looked up a recipe for homemade wood cleaner.

Wood cleaner: 1 cup olive oil + 1/2 fresh lemon juice.

Before: (my camera isn't the best but there is coated grime and nastiness all over this beast!)

After:

It takes some elbow grease, well, maybe only if your child eats like mine. But the results were amazing and my hands felt great afterwords with all of that olive oil.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Finally telling my experience with Crohn's

Hey everyone, it's me Pat, I know your like: "What!?!? This is Rachel's blog! get off!" I dont post on here often but I have been meaning to do this for a long time.Ok so I feel bad cuz I pretty much hijacked my friends post on FaceBook to share a quick personal experience and recommend a product that I buy and use personally. So I want to do it right and tell my story here. Here it goes...

A few years back I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease. It took over a year, an unnecessary surgury, a plethora of the most humiliating tests and jumping from doctor to doctor due to insurance changes. A doctor finally confirmed it I had Crohn's disease. FYI: Crohn's disease is a chronic illness with no cure read more here, but be warned there are picturs and they are gross.

It is basically an auto-immune disorder attacking your colon and digestive system. Think of it as IBS on crack. Common symptoms are abdominal pain, painful and frequent bowel movements, loss of appetite, rapid weight loss, and it can lead to cancer.

My first specialist put me on a steroid I forget what its called, but it had a huge list of side effects like psychotic episodes and schizophrenia. I took the pills hoping to avoid these effects and it did ok with relieving my symptoms. I was fortunate that a friend spoke up and told me about the possibility of treating my disease with Omega 3 pills. He told me about K48 Plus a highly concentrated Omega 3 sourced from krill. I know you think of Finding Nemo right...

I began taking the pills and I noticed a difference in my energy level and mood first. Then I stopped taking my steroid pills and my symptoms did not return. I now have no major symptoms and I don't have to worry about side effects other than feeling better and sleeping better. My doctor did not tell me about this! Though to no fault of his own as the studies on Omega 3 are new and are still underway on the many benefits they have for our bodies. It has shown significant benefits for people with all kinds of chronic diseases and common ailments.

For more info PLEASE click here

Please feel free to ask me any questions about my experience, this was just a quick telling and there is much more to it. If you want to buy a bottle and try it for yourself please let me know. I became a distributor because I believe in this product so much. Again ask me anything about my experience or the pills. Seriously, I am an open book on this topic, ask me anything. Fire away, haha.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Mmmmm...Cupcakes

I'm really not a cake kinda girl. I like cookies or brownies way better. But Patrick, on the other hand, loves him some cake! He really wanted to make cupcakes tonight so we busted out some mad skills and made strawberry cupcakes with homemade strawberry jam filling and vanilla frosting.

Yeah, they were good. Whenever I tried to put something back into the cupboards the door would hit my belly, haha. Lemme try to re-close that. Sometimes I forget how far pregnant bellies stick out. Anyways, we have both agreed that next time we'll try chocolate cupcakes with banana filling and peanut butter frosting, or peanut butter filling and banana frosting. Either way, it's a win-win situation.

P.S. Don't be jealous of mah gangsta chain! I like it (Candice made it for me for Christmas).

Baby Ryker

Ryker Jason Horn

Born January 27, 2011 at 12:30pm

7lbs 12oz - 19 1/2 inches

Elliott was sooo excited to see and hold baby Ryker. Can't blame her, he's a cutie!

Braedyn was holding him and she said to Elliott, "it's your turn now." Elliott squeezed the pillow she was holding and said to Braedyn, "I'm so excited!"

Elliott and Eleanor

Patrick's sister (Candice) and her daughter (Eleanor) came to visit from Utah. Elliott had so much fun helping take care of her cousin. It was great to have them down to visit! And yes, the e-l names get a little confusing sometimes.

And here's Elliott doing puzzles with Grandpa. They both love puzzles...and princesses.

Princess

So, my mother-in-law got this dog a while back. It half chihuahua and half something else, maybe Pomeranian. It's small, stinky, and definitely an ankle biter. And her name is Princess. But Elliott was in love with her. Yes, I say was because after a few weeks Debbie gave the dog back. Yay! It was so stinky and trapped in a room all day. What? I didn't have time to take care of a dog AND a kid AND be pregnant. Too hard, not my dog anyways. Elliott would rarely put her down. She'd carry her around like a baby, push her in her shopping cart, make Princess play musical instruments, make her dance, the list just goes on and on. Here's Elliott and her BFF.

A Sign of Good Luck?...

So I was making cookies and the recipe called for 2 eggs. One of the eggs had this!...

Two yolks! Well, I thought it was amazing. I'm pretty sure it's a sign that something great is going to happen to me soon. Hmmm...money? epidural with this birth? I don't know, but I bet it's gonna be AWESOME! Poor little twin chicks, they were delicious. It's the price they had to pay for some good luck to me.

John's Incredible Pizza!

And it was. The food was really good. It's like Bullwinkle's but with better food and without the outside rides and miniature golf. Elliott had a great time at a birthday party for one of Pat's co-worker's kids (thanks Justin!). Except they had some inside rides the kids had to be at least 36 inches tall to ride and Elliott tried to reach her hands in the air and stand on her tippy toes to be tall enough. It was really cute but sad cause she was about an inch shy of being tall enough. Ooooh, looks like we won't be going back until she's tall enough!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Get it out!!!

I'm so done being pregnant! Totally not enjoying it the same way I did with Elliott. First of all, my doctor always tells me I'm too fat. Duh! I'm pregnant...you idiot. Of course I'm too fat. Here's a short list of things I hate about being pregnant: I feel like I can't breathe, it hurts to do ANYTHING (walking, sleeping, sitting, etc.), I'm so hormonal and get stressed easily, swollen feet, kids at work using my stomach as an example of the word "enormous", watching shows about overweight people losing a ton of weight while I keep gaining weight, people suggesting baby names. Ok, I'll stop there.

Pros of being pregnant: I still look cute.

Me and Amber at Christmas time. I'm due February 16 (having a girl), she's due February 7th (having a boy). No, we didn't plan it.

Me and Elliott before church on Sunday, January 16. She thinks it's so funny when she gets to sit on sister and I bounce her on my belly.

I am excited to get this baby out, the sooner the better at this point. I'm excited to see what she'll look like, and for Elliott to have a sister. Maybe then she'll stay in her own bed at night.

Elliott, Take 1...

She such a ham! Elliott loves doing her make-up with me. She says, "I wanna do my eyelashes, mom". So I let her put her own make-up on while I do mine. She looks like she's trying out for the next Avatar movie.

Here are pics from her "photoshoot". She said, "Take pictures of me mom." So I would say, "pose" and she would do a different look. None of these are prompted, she totally came up with these poses on her own.