Christmas 2010

Well, I don't know how we do it, but we seem to pull off Christmas every year. We don't do any shopping until black Friday and then we don't stop until it's done. They each received the gift that they asked for. Matt also made some gifts out of a cedar log. He made a beautiful shelf for the kids to put their backpacks on and their jackets. He also made a chair for me to sit on at the dinner table. We have benches, but I like to have some back support so he made the chair. Then he made the cute toy for Elody. He also made each of the other kids a spin top or dreidel. That evening I cooked a prime rib roast and we ate on the fine china. It has become a tradition over the past few years as long as we can find the roast at a decent price. The pjs came from Matt's mom! The kids all love their new jammies.

Animal stories: 1 Farewell to Daisy and 2 The Stupid chicken

Daisy broke her teeth some how and wasn't eating very much. The kids would fine chop her food, but unfortunately she died. Daisy is the brown and white one. This was one of the final pictures of her while she was alive.


Chicken story: One morning I went out to feed the chickens and check for eggs. To my surprise I found a chicken crammed into a four inch space. It took all my strength to pry her out. She just flopped down on the ground when I finally got her out. So I brought her into the house and held her for a while by the fireplace to get her warmed up. Then I put her in a box with some food and water for a while. After about an hour she finally popped her head up and made some noise. I had to leave so I took her outside again. It took her a couple of days to recover, but she finally did. Since I had a chicken in the house and was holding it, Beau went and got one too. He was so cute that I had to take a picture of him. :)

Ward Christmas Party

At our annual ward Christmas party, the primary kids got to be in a nativity production. Angelique was Mary, Jaren was a shepherd boy, and Safia was an Angel. It is such a wonderful experience for them to get to do this. They of course they all got to go see Santa. Elody wasn't too compliant, so Jileigh went with her and we just took a group picture with them.

Saturday morning egg chili puff

Many Saturday mornings we make egg chili puffs for our family. In one pan we put the green chilies and in the other we don't. They are so so yummy!

Egg chili puff

10 eggs
½ C flour (I use half white all purpose and half whole grain flour)
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ tsp onion powder
1/8 tsp garlic powder
½ pint cottage cheese
6 oz. shredded cheddar or Colby jack cheese
4 T butter, melted
1 can diced green chilies
4-5 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled or ¼ lb. diced ham to taste.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat eggs.
Sift together the dry ingredients.
Blend well the dry ingredients into the eggs.
Stir in cottage cheese, shredded cheese, green chilies, bacon, and melted butter.
Pour into a greased 9 x 13 casserole dish.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the center is firm.
Serve hot with sour cream and salsa if desired.

(We have to double this and serve it in 2 casserole dishes to feed my family.)

Angelique's art

In Angelique's class, they were required to do a painting with water colors on the theme, The Wonders of Water. She chose to paint a scene at the ranch looking at the pond and seeing the reflection of the mountains. It turned out beautifully. She won second place in her grade, even though I think she deserved first place! :) It has been mailed to the district for the district competition.

Thanksgiving with Grammy and family

I was terrible about taking pictures on Thanksgiving trip to my mom's house. I only took this one of my brother Aaron holding my baby Elody. Anyway, we went to my mom's for Thanksgiving. Matt and I and the boys and Elody slept at my sister's (Jeanette) house and Jileigh, Angelique, and Safia slept at my mom's house with Marni's family. The girls were inseparable. They played their little hearts out. We ate our Thanksgiving dinner at Jeanette's house. The next day, Black Friday, Matt and I went shopping for nearly all of Christmas. It was amazing that we were able to get everything packed in our already packed car. That afternoon Jeanette took me to lunch at In-and-Out burger because I had never eaten there before and it was about time! We really enjoyed it. Sunday morning we went to sacrament meeting, packed up our stuff and headed home to a very cold house. We built a fire and made whole grain pancakes for dinner, then crashed in our beds!

Talon's choir singing at the grocery store

Every year our grocery store has an open house before the holidays and invites the choirs from the different schools to sing there. Talon's choir sang there on Friday and we got to go watch them. Candy, Matt's mom, and sister Esther came too. It's fun to watch the singing and then go around the store and taste the samples. They always sample out turkey, ham, cheese balls and crackers, egg nog, and ice cream. The line was too long to get the ice cream, not that I would want them to have it anyway, so we left. The kids were upset, so later I made some homemade ice cream from all raw ingredients. It was the most fabulous ice cream I have ever had. It tasted so clean and pure. Guilt-free, good-for-you ice cream!!! We ate it while watching How to train your dragon. The kids really like that movie.

Friday night to Saturday morning Matt and Talon went on an overnight campout. I had a beef stew in a crockpot all day that I put in a container for them. All Matt had to do was put it in a dutch oven to warm up for dinner. Matt made dutch-oven peach cobbler for the troop. When they went to bed, they doubled their sleeping bags to keep warm. They were expecting it to be about 35 degrees but it was only 40 degrees so it wasn't quite as cold as they were expecting. They had scrambled eggs with cheese and a sausage patty for breakfast and then came home. We then spent the day cleaning the house and doing laundry. fun fun.

This week our stake had a talent show. Back a few months ago, our ward had a talent show and two of the acts were chosen to go on to the stake talent show and Talon was chosen to sing. He sang, "A child of song." Since our camera will only record a few seconds at a time, I only have a few seconds of his song. He did a wonderful job. He showed no fear. I think I would be shakin' in my boots if I were him.

Then today he gave his first talk in sacrament meeting on Charity. He picked out a story and a couple of quotes from President Monson's talk from the Women's general conference at the end of September. He did a great job on his talk too. He spoke clearly and with good voice inflection and looked up once in a while. It was very touching. Good Job T!

On Wednesday, Jileigh was in a dialogue performance in her theatre class with her friend Stephanie. Each of the students in the class had to do this performance that took about 5 minutes. Anyway, my camera doesn't record video very well anymore, not longer than 7-8 seconds before it quits. I figure I need to just buy a new memory card for it. So she did a nice job. She needs to slow down and speak louder and enunciate her words better, but this was her first attempt.

Jaren's Hero report

This week Jaren had to do a report on a local hero. He really wanted to do our city's firefighters. So we went down to the fire station and he interviewed a fire fighter that was there working at the time. Then I took a few pictures of him with the fire fighter, the fire truck and with him getting to honk the extremely loud horn. He so was in his happy place. When ever anyone asks him what he wants to be when he grows up, he always says that he wants to be a fire fighter.

Then we came home and Jileigh and he went to work on a really cute power point covering all the information from the interview.

Safia - at it again

This week my Safia pulled a couple of stunts to write about. First, she decided that her bangs were too long and in her eyes, so she cut them all by herself. They weren't too bad, I just had to even them out a little bit. Hopefully by spring, they will have grown out enough to do family pictures again. I wanted to do them this fall, but I don't think I am going to now.

Next, I let her and Beau watch a movie on my computer. I left them along for a little bit and Safia got a hold of a safety pin, undid it, and scratched the heck out of my monitor screen. I don't know if you can tell very well in the picture because I am looking at the picture through this same screen. :)

I came up with a word to describe her and that would be: uninhibited. She is uninhibited to do what ever comes into her mind. Heaven help her through the years.

Angelique with the little girls

On Tuesday, Candy asked me to sing with her at her YW in Excellence meeting, Learn of Me. So while we were practicing, Angelique entertained our little ones. She put a couple of pillows in each of two baskets and put the little girls in them. She then gave them each a baby doll to hold while she read them a story. She also took a quick video of them. She was really quite cute with them.

"There are angels among us..."

So this is how the story goes. Saturday, Nov. 6th,late morning I asked Jileigh and Angelique to go up into the attic above the garage(that is the secure section with boards on the trusses) to look for a box of 24 month winter clothes for Elody. Well, Jileigh came down with a box but Angelique didn't. Then Jaren and Safia went up. I was just saying to Matt that I didn't think that they should be up there, when we heard noises going on above the living room and dining room. Jileigh runs to open the door and we all yell out, "You guys get down from there!" Then we hear a loud crack and boom. We ran to the different bedrooms trying to find the source of the noise. Finally we saw Angelique walking out of the bathroom. She was totally covered in insulation and desperately trying to catch her breath. She was in a bit of shock apparently seemed unharmed. She calmed down and I sent her into the shower in my bathroom. After she came out she showed me that her sides were a little bit scraped up and then finally the tears came. She was worried that we would be mad that she destroyed the bathroom. I chuckled a little bit and explained that the bathroom ceiling was the least of our problems. Dad can fix that, no problem. I then told her that we were just so grateful that she was alive and basically unharmed. The situation could have been sooo sooo much worse, broken bones, unconsciousness, even death. She just landed in the tub and walked out of it. There are truly angels among us to watch over us and protect us and she definitely had angels with her. She is bruised on her sides and has some surface scratches, but that's it. Amazing!

So then Matt went to work on repairing the ceiling. He put all the insulation back in the attic, put up some support boards against the trusses and screwed the drywall back up. He even put the tape on over the seems and put on the first coat of drywall mud. I vacuumed up the floor and wiped down the counter and toilet with the bathroom wipes. We have our bathroom back!

Amy's vinaigrette salad dressing

Every once in a while over the years I've tried to make an olive oil vinaigrette salad dressing and I haven't been pleased with it. Well, recently I tried again, but without success. So on a whim, I replaced the sugar with my raw honey and changed vinegars. Ohhhh, we are loving it now!

Amy’s vinaigrette salad dressing

½ C extra virgin olive oil
¼ C raw honey
¼ C red wine vinegar
1 rounded teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 medium clove garlic, minced
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper

Put all ingredients in a pint jar, put a secure lid on it, and shake it up or use a whisk. Serve over a green salad. If it is too sweet, add 1 extra T of olive oil and red wine vinegar, but these are the ratios that I like. Mix it up again before each use.

Doctor visit update on me

I went Monday to the doctor for my two week post-op visit, (actually it was only 12 days). Everything looks fine, but I found out something interesting. After the doctor took my uterus and repaired the posterior wall, he decided that the anterior wasn't bad enough to repair, that it had receded back into position. So, on the table, he made the decision that it wasn't medically necessary to do the repair. That shows that my doctor is conservative and isn't out to just make a buck. I didn't really suffer from the anterior wall hernia anyway. I still feel like I am suffering from a severe episiotomy and the doctor said that it will probably last the full six weeks. So, until then........... :)

Halloween 2010 (saved)

For our Halloween festivities, we went over to my friend Jennifer's house and joined with her family for a party. We baked Papa Murphy's pizzas, had a pumpkin decorating contest, a costume contest and parade, and then watched How to Train your Dragon. The kids had a fun time.

Jileigh was dressed as a Pirate from The Pirates who don't do anything.
Talon was dressed as a Jedi.
Angelique was dressed as Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter.
Jaren was dressed as Mario from the computer games.
Safia was dressed as an Angel.
Beauchene was dressed as none other that Buzz Lightyear!
Elody was dressed as a lady bug, and cute as a bug she was!

Jileigh wanted her hair frizzy so I put 6 french braids in her hair. I really liked how it turned out and wanted her to keep it that way, but then that wasn't the point of having the braids, so she took them out and had the frizzy hair she was going for. I still took some pictures of her hair-do.

Angelique's first orchestra concert

Thursday, Angelique had her first orchestra concert. The kids were all dressed up in their Halloween costumes. It was dark so the pictures aren't very good, but you get the idea. Angelique was dressed as Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter.

My week of surgery

If you haven't read my entry, "Update on me" on 10/10/10, read that first so you can better understand this entry.

Monday, Oct. 18, I went to my Dr. office to get the blood work order and then headed to the hospital lab and did the lab work. They gave me a green hospital band that I had to wear until the surgery was over.
Wednesday, Oct. 20 at 11am I walked into the hospital, fasting, ready for surgery. They gave me the sedative and rolled me out of the room. Next thing I remember is waking up. The nurses kept talking about food. I hadn't eaten in how many hours and they were talking non stop about food. Finally I woke up enough that I was wheeled to my room. At this point, I couldn't turn my head or I would get dizzy and I couldn't drink too much or I would get sick and I couldn't drink enough to satisfy my thirst. Matt had to bring a straw to my mouth of apple juice and then water every four to five minutes. At some point in the evening, I ran out of juice and we called for more, but it was too late. I threw up the contents of my stomach. They gave me a shot in my IV for nausea and another shot for pain called Toradol. Then I was able to start drinking some chicken broth. That settled well in my tummy. I wasn't able to rest well with all the thirst, pain, nurses and more nurses checking my vital signs and so forth. Some of the nurses kept telling me it was time to get up and walk. I kept telling them, "No way!" As long as I was light-headed, I was not standing up. Finally, at 4:30 am, I hit "DONE." I called the nurse and had her take off the leg circulators, the pulse monitor,and the catheter. I stood up, with Matt's help and him constantly holding on to me, and I walked through the room and out the door. That was far enough! I turned around and went back to bed. I was only able to sleep a little longer before the pain came back. They switched nurses and the new nurse suggested I switch pain relievers and us percocet and 800 mg Ibuprofen. Hallelujah. I could finally relax and sleep... and sleep well. A couple of hours later, they told me I needed to sit on the toilet and urinate. So I sat, but my muscles wouldn't relax. I pushed, which I later discovered was a NO NO, and got some out. A couple of hours later they told me again. The same thing. But they didn't tell me that if I have to push then that's bad and they need to do some thing about it. A couple of times that evening and again the next morning I had to seriously push to urinate. I finally called the doctor at 8:00 am and he told me to come in right away. Matt was at work, but my mom was here to get the kids off to school. So I called a friend and she drove me to the doctors office. They brought me right in, had me go what I could, which was only about a cup, did an ultrasound, and put in a catheter. I relieved myself another 4 cups of fluid. I know, more than you wanted to know. So...I have had to wear this thing all weekend and I go back in tomorrow morning to see if I can do this "taken for granted" process on my own, hopefully!
I still have had to take the Ibuprofen around the clock and the percocet at night so I can relax and sleep. The stitches still hurt pretty badly once the meds wear off. I still feel pretty tired and have to lie down most of the time. I am suppose to walk around a bit and then go back down. It's the going-back-down thing I have to be reminded to do. I went to sacrament meeting this morning only because it was my kids' primary program. I sat in the chapel for the sacrament part and then I went out into the foyer and lay down on the couch. I had my purse and Matt's mom's sweater for a pillow. I am sure some people who didn't know me that would walk by thought it was strange, but the few ward members that I saw told me I should be back home in bed! :) My mom brought me home and I rested the rest of the time until the others were back home and lunch was made. My mom and Matt made the butternut squash soup again. It was YUMMY! I visited with my mom for a couple of more hours and then Matt took her to the shuttle which took her to the nearest airport. Matt has the next three days off work to stay home and take care of us. Then friends will take care of us on Thursday and then Matt's mom will come Thursday evening and stay on Friday to take care of us so Matt can go back to work.

Monday, October 25th
This morning I cut the catheter. About an hour later I took a shower. After being under the shower for about ten minutes, the signal to urinate finally came. A couple of hours later and a couple of cups of water later I went to my doctor's appointment. I was only able to release out half of my bladder. The doctor said that there was nothing wrong with my bladder but that it was just in shock and I just needed to relax. He gave me an at-home catheter and told me I could use it if I felt like I needed to. So when I got home I sat on the toilet. I went a little bit and then it stopped. I sat there for a little while longer with the shower on and then finally I relaxed and released the rest of my waters. What a relieve. Now it is Monday night and my bodily functions are back to normal. Hooray for me!