Friday, March 21, 2008

Recipes

Ok - I haven't posted any recipes in quite awhile. So here is a link to a whole slew of Weight Watcher recipes. I read these several years ago for the first time with my sister Marjie. I think we were both rolling on the floor by the time we made it through the last recipe. Enjoy scrolling through the pictures!

A day of driving

Ben & I spent Thursday on the road. He had his pre-surgery appointment at Children's Hospital in Seattle. The weather wasn't too bad, just a little snow on the pass. The appointment went well. The surgeon said that Ben's mouth looks very good - perfectly ready for the bone graft. The surgery is in two weeks and he will be on restricted activity and diet for six weeks after. That is going to be way too much fun. He won't be able to run and play - participate in recess or PE at school. He will be on soft food only, no chewing!!! Really looking forward to that.
I always get a deep reality check when I take one of the boys to Children's. I fuss about the kids at times and then we go there and I see the parents with the 1 or 2 year old child that has a bald head from chemo and is on oxygen or has a feeding tube and I think - wow, I really have it easy. It really puts everything into perspective. This surgery is just a little bump in the road. Ben has had his share - lip repair in China, two hand surgeries at Seattle Children's, a rhinoplasty at Seattle Children's and double hernia surgery at Spokane. It will be over soon and hopefully there won't be anything else for along time.

Future Seahawk?



Look out Matt Hasselback - looks like you have some up and coming competition. Ethan is very excited - he figured out how to throw a spiral. He is pretty good at catching the ball too. I think this is one boy that is going to be a ball player.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

The Lind Diamondbacks - Minor Minor League!!!






This morning we started the day with a rousing game of baseball. Ben actually connected and hit one out of the yard!!! Everyone else got in the groove and hit quite a few. I'm sure it won't be long and we will have to start checking them for steriod use. I don't know if they will have a T-ball team here this year. Ben won't be able to play as he will be laid up from his surgery.
We also went to the Ralston Egg Hunt yesterday. The girls kind of stood around and watched - they thought it was too cold to pick up eggs! We had fun playing all the games and eating all the snacks inside the grange after the hunt. Ben ate 6 servings of fruit! I think everyone thinks that I starve my kids because they eat so much but I keep telling them that they eat like that at home too!!! In fact it frightens us to think about our food budget for the future - might be more than the mortage!!!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Love & Marriage

Emma & Ethan are in Kindergarten together. Their teacher, Mrs. Steinberger, does some really cool stuff with the kids. She puts together books of their work and does some theme books too. The kids then get to take turns taking the books home and we get a real kick out of seeing their world through their eyes!!! Today, Emma brought home the Love & Marriage book. Mrs. Steinberger asked the kids, "What does love mean to you and how old do you have to be to get married?"

Ethan said: "Love means that like you hug people. I love my Mom and Dad. I know they love me too because they tuck us in at night, they read books, they let us play video games and they take us places. I think you need to be 20 years old to get married."

Emma said: "I love my sister Bailey and my brother Ben. I love Ethan. I love my Mom and Dad. They read to me and take me places. I love my Aunt Sashie, I love Sophie and Tristian. I kissed Tristian. I don't know if I'm old enough to get married. Bailey is almost old enough. I need to ask my Mom and she will tell me when I can get married."

And that's all I have to say about that!!!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Long Time No Blog

Just a warning - this will probably be a long one! Not really sure why I have been off the blog lately. I think I just got sad and got out of the habit. We had some really bad news early in February. Our babysitter's mother Nana had a stroke and then died a week later. We were all very close to Nana. She was our back up babysitter and the kids spent alot of afternoons sitting around her kitchen table having tea. Nana was from England and was a very unique lady. Her first husband had been in the British Military and they had lived in Africa. She had amazing tales to tell about Africa, living in England during WWII and just life in general. She was a true force of nature and never afraid to speak her mind. We miss her every day.
Other news for February: Emma lost another tooth, Ben had 4 more teeth pulled and we survived filling out valentines!


We have Ben's bone graft surgery scheduled. We have a pre-op appointment March 20th and the surgery is scheduled for April 3. He will be on very limited activity and diet after the surgery for 6 weeks. We really wanted to get this over before summer. I just couldn't imagine telling him that he couldn't swim for 6 weeks! We got him a used gameboy so hopefully he won't feel too bad about not being able to ride his bike or participate in PE at school.
Yesterday, we went down to Pasco to visit and do some shopping. We hit Walmart right before we came home. There was a big display of slippers on sale for $1 ea. They were the fuzzy scuff kind of slippers. The boys were complaining because they were just girl slippers and I told them if they wanted, the girls could have the pink ones and the boys could have the purple ones. They all agreed - then when we were at the check out, Ethan piped up and told the cashier that the purple ones were for Ben and him. Ben just about had a conniption telling him to be quiet - that we don't tell people that the boys were going to wear girl slippers - that was just for home!!! Once we got out to the car - they all wanted me to cut the strings off the slippers so they could wear them. Ben took a good look at his and got all excited because he could read that they were "MADE IN CHINA" - he called out - "Hey, that's so cool - these were made in China." Then he said, "Hey, maybe Emma made these! Emma, did you make these slippers when you were in China last year!" Emma replied, "Yes, I think I did!" I just about fell out of the van laughing!!!

We cleaned up the garden a little - Rod and the kids hauled the cut up firewood out and stacked it up. Bailey was the number one helper on the project. She even went out after dinner and hauled another load. Quite the little Daddy's helper!!!


Another warning: I just got a new toy!! It's been here about 5 days and so far I've made a triple batch of chocolate chip cookies and a single batch of bread. It was so easy to mix up both of those that it was almost laughable. Can't wait to make more!!! I promise to post some recipes soon. Wish we could have smell a vision here - the house smells like fresh baked bread - yum!!! Oh, and there were 3 loaves of bread in the batch - 1 disappeared in about a 1/2 hour after it came out of the oven. Four little snarf mouths made short work of it.