Thursday, June 5, 2008

I just found the COOLEST website

Ok, to know me is to know that I am ABSOLUTELY obsessed with anything cooking... I spend LOTS of my free time just looking for recipes and today I stumbled across this website... FABULOUS!! Since CJ's heart scare over Christmas (that turned out to be anxiety... but never the less...) and my diabetes, I TRY (and I emphasize TRY) to be healthy (that's hard when I also TRY to be frugal!!!) this was like.... heaven... in blog form :0). I mean, do you know how long its been since I had a donut (go ahead... thats actually a link. AND it's probably the recipe I will try first!)?? If I only had all the ingredients for these pancakes!!

I'm sure you won't be nearly as excited about it as I was.. well, maybe Kandis will be, but I thought having this info could give some more insight about ME!

And things just wouldn't be quite right if I didn't give a nod to the Pioneer Woman herself (another favorite place).

(ok, so it was kind of a long day and I'm trying to do something to seem selfish... for just a moment. I can do that every once in a while!)

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Maternal Instincts

Blake was sick a couple of weeks ago, I was sick part of last week and, well, up until now. We have had a very fortunate year in that there haven't been many illnesses in our home! Both Blake and I have had pretty severe colds... his in his throat, mine in my head where I literally thought my fillings were going to pop out of my teeth, but still not as bad as what could have been (on top of everything else :0).

Kailey, on the other hand, was sick twice last night, in the middle of the night. Poor girl. She was feeling better as the day went on though, so that's good. What I wanted to write about was the maternal instincts I think all women have, from a very early age. I have single women who are very close to me, who do not have children - but they somehow seem to have what it takes, when it matters, to comfort children. This was so evident last night with Ashlyn... although I didn't even know it until I woke up this morning (my maternal instincts lacking, but I'll get to that shortly). Last night Ashlyn woke up to Kailey coughing in her sleep. She was in such a fit that Ashlyn went to her bed (they share a room) to comfort her. As she was comforting her little sister, Kailey threw up on her. Ashlyn said that for a split second she was mad, then thought "She didn't do it on purpose, she is really sick" and nursed her until she could get CJ (who was still awake). I woke up, at some point, to hear the bath water running, and knowing that it would be a bad thing to go out and make CJ feel inadequate of dealing with whatever he was dealing with. So I listened for a while and fell back to sleep. CJ is the patient, or compassionate, one in our family, so the kids are much more comfortable with him in the middle of the night anyway.

I was just so touched at the thought process of our 9 year old little girl. Once again, she has made me proud to be a mom.

Kandis... Canyon had a bad dream last night too... prepare yourself for the comforts of home!

Question...

I have a question for anyone out there qualified to answer...

I am looking for a recipe for popped wheat... something you can season and sprinkle on top of salads and such. Any body know how to do this??
I'm trying to be frugal... and croutons go wayyyy to fast (and I just don't want to take the time to make my own).

Thanks!

Kandis.... any ideas????? :0)

Bye Bye Blakie

Well, Blake made it on the plane yesterday. It was kind of strange not hear loogies being spat and heavy footsteps running around the house tryin not to be late for school this morning... but welcome at the same time.

We all wanted one last hoorah before Blake headed to Spokane for the summer and decided to head up American Fork Canyon for the afternoon on Sunday, family day! Our intention was to go up to Cascade Springs where they have built boardwalks over the water and you can walk around and see the life that's in the water. We got half way up there and the road was still closed... through May 31... it was June 1st, a Sunday and I am assuming government work would be required to open it up, so its probably open now, but not Sunday. Oh well. The canyon is huge (this is the same Canyon with Mt. Timpanogas) so we turned around and took the other fork in the road. But first we snapped a few pictures. It was beautiful ...


So we headed back and found a beautiful lake reservoir and kept heading up the mountain and found another lake, Silver Flat Lake. We found one of the State Park displays that said there was another Silver Lake, but you had to hike to it. So we started our hike up the mountain, Canyon in full sprint, Kailey without socks, yet again, with another blister in 5 minutes. We hiked for about an hour and a half, and the kids seriously loving every second (Kailey was being carried most of the way, whats not to love), Canyon finally walked and loved maneuvering over the giant rocks that were in our path! But we thought maybe it was time to go back down. Blake and CJ couldn't live with the possibility that the lake was "just over the ridge" so I stayed back with the kids and they went ahead. After just a few minutes they were off the trail, in the middle of the hill... shortcut. Then a few minutes later they were at the top of the ridge, of course talking with some other hikers. With CJ this could mean they'll be a while, so I started down with the kids. We heard a couple howls from the hills... no not coyotes or anything more wild than CJ and Blake, and within about 10 minutes they were back! They found out from the other hikers that the other Silver Lake was still about an hour hike away, so it was a good thing we were on our way down. We made it down in record speed... Kailey was absolutely finished with this mountain by now and was keeping the pace for the rest of us, totally ignoring her blister. Once we got in our car it started getting windy and we headed back down to the reservoir lake where Blake took Ashlyn and Kailey to rinse the dirt off while Canyon slept and CJ and I rested (I was actually sick when we started but decided to take one for the team). It was a great day... and Blake... if you're a good boy this summer maybe we'll let you come back! :0)

anyone missing... Kandis perhaps????? Not for long though... she's a comin' home!!!!!!!!