Rain, Rain...don't go away....

Please stay for the rest of the day! You are so lovely and refresing...and you so match my miserable mood. Rain, Rain...don't go away! Please, please stay the rest of the day......

At the moment we are having a lovely down pour of rain. After a day of pouty gray skies......It is FAN-FRIGGIN'-TASTIC!!!! Alot of people wish the rain away. Not me. Hardley ever. But mostly not today. I just love the rain. As long as there isn't alot of wind or lightening, like now...I think it is just lovely. I am down, depressed, and sad today, and even though I like rain, for the most part, the dull grayness of it matches my mood. Kai

Poor Hannah

By the end of the day last Friday, Hannah looked like a rashey red balloon. Her face was so swollen she was unrecognizable. I took her to the ER Saturday morning. They gave her the steroids that her dr should have given her. I was soooo irritated at them. Anyway...she's alot better now. Her rash is doing alot better and the swelling is gone. She has some scaley skin we're having to deal with. I am also having to deal with people thinking that Poison Ivy and Oak are contaigeous....UGH. Ummmm......hello......it's from a PLANT not a virus! Once the oil is gone....you can't get the rash from someones allergic reaction. Don't be dumb!!! Oh well....she's alot better and that's what matters.

Other than that it's been a rough week for me. I have had a hard time just functioning. I think it's been the raiging head of the PMS monster doing me in. Now that Aunt Flow is here maybe I'll feel better. We'll see. I have alot to do. The house is a huge wreck...not that that is any different than usual, but I just can't seem to make myself get up and do anything. Mark was unhappy with me yesterday cuz of it. Oh well.....that's how it goes sometimes.

Caleb went to Tiger Safari yesterday with his Gifted class on a field trip. He had a BALL. Just would not stop talking about it for anything and even got to bring back a piece of lizard skin. Hannah gets to go to Martin Nature park on Friday. She excited about that too. Tomorrow is Joshua's 17th birthday...I sure can't believe he's that old already. It seems like yesterday we were taking him on the plane home to Kodiak to my mom's house. Emma turns 2 on Sunday....my baby is getting tooo big!!!.....Time for another baby I guess....LOL. Later Gaters, Kai.

Rashes and Potatos....

I got the kids up and going for school this morning. They were supposed to have Doughnuts for Daddy for breakfast at school....both of them were really excited about it, too. So was daddy...give him free Krispy Kreem and he's a happy camper...LOL. Well....I get the livingroom lights turned on and see that Hannah has broke out in this horrid bright red rash all over her face and arms. I take her clothes off too see how covered in the rash she is and low and behold she has it under both arms down her torso. Between her upper thighs and all over her arms and face. It is hot to the touch and itchy. The kid got some poison oak on her hands a few days ago and from what it seems this is an allergic reaction to it. She went with daddy and bubby to the doughnut thing but then Mark brought her back home. I called her pediatrition, and it took them 4 hours to call me back and tell me to give her OTC Clairatin over the weekend and if she isn't better on Monday to bring her in. UGH....I was irritated to say the least. I sure hope the Clairatin helps cuz she is just downright miserable.

The potato bandit has struck again. It is about 2 ft high with curly blonde hair, brilliant blue eyes and a giggle that would turn anyones day bright. Her name is Emmaleigh and she will be 2 on the 30th of this month. And she is the funniest thing ever. She loves her baby dolls alot and her new pink Easter bunny....But her favourite toy by far are the potatos I keep a bin in the Kitchen. She gets a big mixing bowl, or pot and fills it with the taters and carries them all over the house. I took pictures of her putting her babies in the potato bin all lined up with the potatos standing gaurd, and the biggest grin ever. As soon as I can I will post them. My cutesie bootsie...LOL. Later Gaters, Kai.

A change of plans....

So dinner yesterday was supposed to be homemade chicken fingers with taters and gravey, and green beans.....Well, Marks boss wanted me to come take care of the clothes at the store (which I do once a week) and so I wasn't able to get to make chicken fingers. Was planning on doing it today, but while I was at Walmart I saw a bag of tortilla mix and decided I wanted to try to make some of my own. SOOOOOOOOO.....my plan for dinner has changed. I am going to make chicken fajitas with homemade pico de gallo and guacamole and chips. Sounds really good to me right now. I just love mexican food! It's my favorite.

PICO DE GALLO

5 large tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 large onion, diced
1 jalapino pepper, seeded and finely minced (leave the seedes and rib if you want it spicier)
1 bunch celantro, chopped
salt to taste

Mix all these things together in a bowl and chill for at least an hour, more if you can, so the flavours can mingle. Serve with tortilla chips for dipping or use as a condement on tacos or fajitas! SOOOOO good!

GUACAMOLE

4 avacados, peeled
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
3 Tablespoons premade salsa
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt to taste

Mash avacado and add remaining ingredients. Taste and season to your taste. You can add hot sauce if you want more spice or add medium or hot salsa. I use mild cuz my kids don't like it hot. I have to usually double the recipe cuz they all inhale it so.

Hope you like these. Remember....they are just the way I do them. I'm not 100% sure if the amounts are right cuz I am writing them from memory. Sorry if it's wrong in any way. Later gaters, Kai.

Abbo's and Ocean's

My youngest child will be 2 in about 10 days. She is just adorable and as smart as a whip. My husband and I are always amazed at some of the things she does that seem above her age leval and ability. For example: The other day I was sitting in my favorite spot reading my book and she comes to me and pulls on my pants and says..."Ocean, Momma. Ocean, Momma." Well, we do not live anywhere near an ocean, and I am pretty sure she doesn't know what one is. So I told her that I didn't understand her. She says it again....I give her the shoulder shrug and say again "what baby? What do you want? I don't understand." She puts her hands out infront and says, holding out one hand..."Abbo" which translated is apple, and that I did understand. Then, with the other hand out says...."Ocean, Mommy. Ocean." She was correlating apples and ORANGES to get her point across so I could understand what she wanted. She knew that we keep them both in the same drawer in the fridge and the somehow they were related. IE, both fruit or something. It just floored me that she could make that kind of connection at her tender age. What a smart baby!!!

Yesterday and Today.....

Well....yesterday went well enough. I got alot that I wanted to do done and the kitchen is much better. I got the really bad counter cleaned off and the floor mopped, which I wasn't sure I'd do, but went ahead and did anyway. The dishes are finally all caught up...or at least until I finish the cookie, then I'll have to do them again. Today will be a day to spend with the kids, and maybe get a little laundry done. I hope to work on my bedroom later today after Josh gets up and around to help with little E.

Okay....Lunch is un imaginative...just hot dogs and chips. Dinner will be homemade chicken fingers, mashed potatos with gravey and green beans. Later Gaters, Kai.

Kids n' Cookies

Well.....Mark had a meeting on the south side of town today and I didn't have a way to get Hannah home from Kindergarten, so she stayed home, which upset Caleb, so he stayed home too. Then Josh woke up with a sore throat, so he's here as well....UGH! Oh well...no biggie. We'll just have a fun day watching movies and baking cookies together. We're gonna do a batch of Snickerdoodles and Chocolate chip if I don't get too burned out. I make wicked, kick butt cookies, if I do say so my self. So...Here's my recipes for anyone interested.....


Snickerdoodles

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar (I used light brown)
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
]/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Topping
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars at high speed. Add egg, vanilla, and beat until smooth. In another bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Pour dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mix well. Preheat oven to 300° while you let dough rest 30-60 minutes in fridge. In a small bowl combine topping. Take about 2 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll it into a ball. Roll this dough in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and press onto greased cookie sheet. Bake cookies 10-12 minutes, NO MORE. *Cookies may seem undercooked but will develop. Don't roll your dough into too big of a ball; they may not turn out in that much time if you do that. It's a very good cookie, it's just all a matter of getting the cooking time right.

Kick butt Chocolate chip Cookies

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon each baking powder and baking soda
1-12 oz pkg semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla. In different bowl, mix together flour, salt baking powder and baking soda. combine the wet and dryt ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips. With fingers, place golf ball sized dought portions 2 inches apart on and ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9-10 minuets or just until edges are light brown.

Okay...my biggest thing I do to make my cookies extra good is I alway try to use real butter and not margarine and I also try to use real vanilla. Sometimes I don't have those things and have to make due, but I like spending the extra little bit to make them as good as I can. Hope you like the recipes. Later Gaters....I'm off to make a mess...LOL. Love, Kai.

In the dog house

I have done something to make my husband angry with me. He won't talk to me...he won't tell me what it is. I think I know, but I'm not sure and I hate not knowing. It drives me nuts! My mom used to let me know she was angry with me and then let me stew about it for hours before she'd tell me and it alway made me crazy. My insides are mush and I am all nervous and upset now. I feel bad for whatever I did, but I can't make amends until I know what it is I did wrong. SORRY HUNNY! Is all I can say for now.

Other than that....day's going well for now. Other than what I just said. I got up and going today...which is always hard for me. I showered, dressed and got the laundry started before Emma woke up...which is always my plan, but it never happens. Then I worked on the kitchen some...it had gotten really bad again and my crap counter is a mess as well. It's still not done, but about 2/3 of the way. I hope to finish it and some more laundry today. It has been too hot to do much cooking the past few days. Had to on Sunday for Easter, but I didn't do anything but sloppy joes yesterday. I want to do a bit of baking, but just can't bring myself to turn the oven on. If it's cooler today, maybe I will. We shall see.

Dinner is Pepper Steak over hot rice, Corn and bread and butter. Don't know if there'll be dessert or not today. Probably not. The kids have been chowing on too much candy from Easter anyway. Later Gaters, Kai.

Strawberries, triffles, and messes.....

OH MY!!! Ala, Wizard of Oz...Lions and tigers and bears....OH MY! First it was Emma dumping a couple of quart pkgs of Strawberries on the floor and scrambling to get a couple "Bewwies" squirrled away to the "LeeWomb" so she could eat them. Amid stiffled giggles, I washed and hulled her a couple and sent her to the "LeeWomb" aka livingroom, to eat them. Then yesterday I made a brownie, vanilla pudding, strawberrie triffle for dessert and it SUCKED!!! To put it mildly. Flavors woulda been fine but for the fact that it was hot here yesterday and my fridge just didn't get very cold and the pudding didn't set well....so we had brownie, vanilla pudding, strawberry soupy slop for dessert last night. Marks family all said it was fine, but I was WAAAYYYY bummed!!! I am gonna try to make one again....this time with better pre-planning and more time instead of rushing it.

The Easter bunny made his yearly visit yesterday and the kids were all thrilled. Josh wasn't happy cuz I made him go to church and he had to turn right around after and work an 8 hr shift at Braums. Oh well.....he's finding out what life is all about is all I have to say. The girls looked really cute in their new Easter dresses and the boys looked oh so handsome. Even if my black wearing teen was in powder blue.....he looked so nice. What can I say....I make pretty kids...LOL. As soon as I can get Josh to email me the pics I had done on Friday I will post them.

Well, I'm off to try to accomplish something around here. The mess part of my title is the whole bloody house...as usual. The living room is trashed from Easter festivities with grass from their baskets all over the place. Laundry is backed up....again. And the Kitchen is too scary to even try to describe. I hope to get a least some of it done. Wish me luck. Later Gaters, Kai. PS....dinner is Sloppy Joes, some kind of rice mix, baby carrots with ranch dressing and some red grapes that were on sale. Kai

Busy, busy, busy....

I have spent the past week busily trying to get things in better order around here. I spent Sunday...(sorry, but got the bug and worked even though it was Sabbith, dh had to work anyway, so I thought I might as well too)...working on my mess of a bedroom. I went through all the clothes that were taking up all the walking space, which isn't more than around one side and the foot of my bed. I got them all either in the laundry to be washed, folded and put away, or in a bag for give away. I now have 2 large black bags for Goodwill. I am still working on catching up the dirty laundry. Going through, washing, sorting out what isn't needed or putting up off season clothes now that it is 70+ degrees outside most days. I felt really good about the progress I made, but have kind of come to a stand still the past few days. I am hoping after Easter Holiday, I'll be able to get back into the swing of things.

Speaking of Easter....I took the kids today to Walmart and had pictures done at the photo studio there. I got the girls matching dresses. Caleb offered to wear a pink shirt....Shocked the heck out of me. I told him he didn't have to, but he said he wanted to, so he picked out a nice pale pink shirt with darker mauvish colour tie. He looked so handsome. I tried to get Josh to wear pink, but it was no go......Kid usually wears all black, so I compromised. He said I'd have to pay him to wear pink...I said, how about blue. He said that was fine. So I got him a baby blue dress shirt, and he wore one of his dads darker blue ties. They all looked so cute and while we waited on our appointment, we walked around the store. We were stopped several times for them to be ooooed and awed over how cute they were. The down side was that they put the pictures on a 3.5 flopy disc and our floppy drive is on the Fritz. So....I have to wait until Joshua can take it to his friends or school and email them to me before I can post the pictures to this here blog thing.....LOL. But as soon as I have them, I'll post them.

Well....It's after 11pm and I'm tired from running around all day, and Emma is into all kinds of stuff. I need to go to bed. Catch you Later Gaters!!! Kai

Potatoe Soup

It soothes the soul and is so rib sticking yummers. Everyone here loves it. And it is so easy to make. When I was a kid, and money was tight, there was always Potatoe soup. I thought I might start and post some of my recipes on my blog to share with the world so y'all can enjoy my brilliance in the kitchen...LOL, just kidding. Anyway.....here's

POTATOE SOUP

3 ribs of celery sliced
1 med. onion, diced
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 Tbs. Marg or butter or olive oil....whatever you have on hand, or you like.
4 lbs pototoes, peeled and diced
3 Tbs. flour
3 cups of milk
Kosher salt, pepper, chyenne pepper to taste
pinch nutmeg

Ok...here goes.....
Sweat celery, onion in garlic until tender. Add diced potatoes just cover with water, add a couple big pinches of salt to season potatoes. Bring to a boil. Continue boil unitl potatoes are all soft and tender. Remove from heat. Using a potatoe smasher, smash tater chuck until as smooth or chuncky as you like it. Add flour and mix well. Return to a medium flame and add milk. Bring back to a boil. Add more milk if you desire soup to be thinner. Add you seasonings and taste. Simmer for 5 or so minuets stirring frequently, scrapping bottom to prevent scorching. Serve with grated cheese, bacon bits (I used real bacon that I fry up and crumble), sour cream, and/or sliced green onion. One or all these additions are wonderful. My kids love to top their own. I make the bowl then they put on what they want. I usually have some kind of bread, even if it is just some bake off fridge biscuits. Hope you try and like. Any questions, just ask. Later Gaters, Kai!!

Terry Goodkind

Something I failed to talk about is that I have been reading alot lately. I reread the last 2 current Harry Potter books and some other fantasy books. I haven't read this much since I was in High School. I was at the book store with Josh the other day and found a series of books by a guy named Terry Goodkind called the Sword of Truth series. There seems to be 10 books in it so far.....YIPEE. Gives me alot to read. I am about 1/3 of the way through the first book.... "Wizards First Rule". It's pretty good so far. I really enjoy the escape it gives me. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed reading. I am not too into reading informationg type books, but give me a good fantasy and I'm all over it. Anyway....just thought I'd give you an idea of a good read for me. Later Gaters, Kai!

:D....Hi again

Life has gotten the better of me lately. I have been having some very difficult times with depression, and because of it, inability to motivate myself to do much of anything. The house is a wreck and I feel like a major failure as a wife and mother and all around person. I have been trying to do a few things different, but it's hard. All I want to do is sit and watch TV or sleep. I also just don't know where to begin most of the time. It is all so overwhelming to me. Our bishop asked if I wanted some help, so he had the Relief Society president come over and we did a lot in the kitchen. Trouble is, I haven't kept it up. It isn't super bad and wouldn't take much to get it back to the way we had it.I just gotta get up off my butt and do it.
I am not going to bother updating on the past few months. I will just say, holidays were fine. Trip was fine. Everything went well. We got our tax returns in the middle of February and were able to get the things we couldn't do otherwise. We got some new livingroom furniture, a new dryer....that I did a happy dance for!!! And a new mattress. They were all very much needed things and we don't ever have the money to get "big" things like that. So it was nice to be able to take care of them. I took Caleb and a couple of friends to play laser tag and took Hannah and a couple friends to Build a Bear Workshop. They all had a lot of fun. Josh got a TV for his bedroom. Right now Josh is working for Braums Ice Cream and he is doing well there. They want him to work full time thins summer. I am hoping he will save enough to get himself some kind of vehicle. Mark is still working for Family Dollar, but he is looking for something else that will pay better. He is hoping for another bank job, but we will see what happens. Emma is growing by leaps and bounds both mentally and physically. She is really smart and as cute as could be, but also as onnery as can be. Her second birthday is in 3 weeks....I just can't believe it has been that long since she was born.
Well...I can't think of anything else to write about today. I am going to post my goals for the day and see how I do tomorrow.....

GOALS FOR 4/9:
Get dressed
Clean up kitchen
Mop kitchen
Work on my bedroom
Work on laundry
Get kids to finish their room
Make nice dinner
Get ready for tomorrow before bed

That's my to do's....we'll see how it goes. Later gaters, Kai!

I'm here.....

Sort of....LOL. Anyway....I have been off for a bit, but I am back now. Again...sort of. As I have said before....I suffer from depression, and the past few months have been particularily bad. I'm here, but not as good as I'd like to be. Hopefully soon I will be able to get on some medication and be alot better than this. So...please be patient with me. More updating soon....PROMISE! Kai