7 Quick Takes Friday: Two #7QT, Birthdays, Fun, Exercise, and Too Much Food

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Today I not only have this meager #7QT post, but I'm also posting over at Catholic Sistas. Today I'm sharing 7 saints that are good role models for dads. I was inspired to take this on by the upcoming Father's Day holiday. It is one that I think is a bit overlooked. I think this is a nice way to begin thinking about all the amazing ways fathers influence our lives. Check out Role Model Saints for Dads at Catholic Sistas today.

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I also have to tell you that my post at Catholic Sistas today will be my last 7 Quick Takes post there for the foreseeable future. I'll still be writing once a month in my other time slot (third Fridays), but trying to do two posts a month over there was getting to be too much. So I'm dropping this one thing. But never fret!! Another ink slinger Sista is taking over the reigns and I'm sure she'll have some great ideas! So if you've enjoyed the 7 Quick Takes posts at Catholic Sistas, they will still be continuing, just not by me. I'm looking forward to seeing what topics are covered in future posts.

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Saturday we had a birthday party for the boys. They turned three on Friday and we celebrated (in a small way) on Saturday. We invited the grandparents to dinner that night and kept it to a small affair. My parents came up from Atlanta and we enjoyed hamburgers, French fries, and coleslaw, followed by presents and cake and ice cream. The boys got to run around in the backyard and chase bubbles, we ate outside (which the boys were really looking forward to), and we had a purple and yellow cake. We also had way too much cake! I ordered a half sheet thinking a half was the size of what is really a quarter sheet. I'm sure the look of shock on my face when the lady at the bakery brought me the cake was priceless. We also learned that the boys have forgotten how to blow out a candle since we put away the Advent wreath in December. There's a skill we need to work on again. Overall, it was a fun evening. [Pictures were taken, but not by me. So I have none to share right now.]

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Since my parents were in town for the weekend we decided to find something fun to do. So on Sunday we checked out the local Children's Museum. We had never been and it was a lot of fun for everyone. I went ahead and bought the year-long membership while we were there. I think it'll be a great place to take the kids a few times during the year. The boys fell asleep on the way home which got me thinking: this would be a great way to get a nap out of them. I don't mind a little driving around after a trip to the museum so they can sleep and I can listen to some podcasts on my iPod or just some good Catholic radio. Oh the things we will do for nap time!

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Doctors, doctors, and more doctors. Since the boys turned three, it was time to go in for a well check-up. They did really well! Peter wasn't too sure about the scale and didn't like that he had to take his shoes off, but he did it and the nurse got all the measurements she needed out of him. Once he was done, Ethan was eager to get up on the scale and put his head under the measurement stick. Blood pressure screenings also start at three, and both of them did great. Got a reading on the first try. They also did really well during the physical exam. I was so impressed with them!

We are going to have them re-evaluated for allergies and we got that appointment scheduled for a few weeks from now. Their current doctor told me she doesn't trust allergy testing done too early, and since we now regularly feel the boys foods that they had originally tested positive for, I'm inclined to agree with her. I'm looking forward to this re-evaluation. It'd be great to not have to worry about epi-pens!

We also learned that Ethan has a heart murmur. What's interesting is that I had an echo cardiogram done when I was pregnant with the boys. The first one showed a possible issue with Baby B's heart (Ethan), but the follow-up echo I had done showed nothing out of the ordinary. So I'm not totally surprised by this. I also feel like it was mentioned before, but there was nothing in his chart about it. So, on Thursday Ethan was scheduled for an echo cardiogram. It was done just to make sure there is nothing to worry about. So I'm not worrying about it unless someone tells me that I should. Hubby took him to that appointment and said he did great. He also took him out for a cinnamon roll following the appointment. What a great dad!

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I need a pedometer. Actually, I do have one, it just needs a new battery. But really, I could have used a pedometer on Tuesday. What a day! I was on my feet so much! I don't think I sat down for longer than 30 minutes until around 3:30 that afternoon. Part of the issue was that I overslept by a LOT! So then I as running from one thing to another right away. And then once I got to work I was in my office for all of 20 minutes before I had to walk to the main library for an interview that took 30 minutes, then I walked back to my office, was there all of 10 minutes before I was off to go pump. I got back around 12:30, cleaned everything, got my lunch, ate, and then headed to my next meeting at 1:30. Back to my office at 2:30 for just a few minutes and then it was off to go pump again at 3:00. There is no way I didn't get the recommended 10,000 steps that day. I really wish I had had my pedometer that day.

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The "Too Much Food" Take. If we're friends on Facebook you might have seen me mention on Thursday that I ended up walking away from the vending machine with way more than I expected that afternoon. But I didn't explain. So here's the story.

I grabbed $1.25 from my purse Thursday afternoon and headed up to the third floor of my building. $1.25 will get me one item from the things in the bottom half of the machine. The top half are all more like $2 each. Total rip off, but sometimes you just don't care. Anyway ... after I purchase an item one of our IT guys shows up next to me to get a drink. We say hi, I'm about to walk away, but then he got angry with the drink machine. I turned around to see what happened and I see him put a dollar into the vending machine. He then proceeds to get angry at that machine too. During his fights with the machine, I had started chatting with him about a monitor problem for one of my staff members. But that conversation got derailed while we both tried to figure out if the vending machine was capable of returning his dollar to him. Apparently it is not.

So, turns out the drink machine wasn't taking bills for some unknown reason. He then proceeded to stick the dollar in the vending machine in the hopes it would give him some quarters if he asked for change that he could then use on the drink machine. But as we discovered, giving change is not something this machine was interested in doing without a purchase first. I told him to just go ahead and get something, he could save it for another time. Instead he insisted that I get something for me. After some back and forth I told him I'd repay him and I entered the number for a bag of Peanut M&Ms. The machine spit out two bags! So now I had the bag of cookies I had come up there to get, plus two bags of Peanut M&Ms.

I ended up giving one bag of M&Ms to one of my coworkers. And my IT friend ended up using his credit card on the drink machine to get what he had wanted all along. I didn't even realize that these fancy machines now take credit cards. That's a piece of information I wish I didn't know!

Check out Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Take posts!! Have a nice weekend.