Ballet

James started ballet a few months ago and has been preparing for his first recital.  Today, they performed for a couple of senior citizen homes.  James did such a good job!  Him and a girl from his class got chosen to perform with the older kids in the opening and closing songs.  Here he is with Lindsay right before his first performance.

Those Three Words

It never ceases to amaze me how a little boy can say, "I love you, mom.   Thanks for this awesome breakfast!" and it can melt away any troubles.  Thanks, James.  I love you too!

Duh

Sam and James had a few friends over today.  Sam and the friends were playing a game of tag with James.  James ran upstairs and shut the door to the bedroom and locked it.  In a ruse to get in, this is what I heard.


Sam:  James.  I need to get in.  I have to use the bathroom.  
Sam:  I'm serious.  I'm going to tell mom if you don't unlock the door.  I have to go to the bathroom.
Sam's friend:  Yeah.  It's only him out here.
Sam:  SHHHH!  Dude, he knows you are there.  He can hear you!

Sam's appointment

Sam had a follow up appointment with his pediatrician yesterday.  Now that we know he is allergic to milk, soy, beef, tuna, barley, and bananas, she wanted to see how he was doing after we had removed all of those from his diet.  We are happy to say that he hasn't thrown up once in the last month and a half!  Sam also got a stern scolding from the doctor.  He was told that he was now to have the one bite rule.  I'm hoping that works since he heard it from the doctor.  Guess we will see!

James is a poet

I took Sam to a doctor's appointment yesterday and James surprised me by asking if he could write a poem while we waited.  I got him out some paper and a pen and this is what he wrote.

Fireworks, fireworks in the sky.

Higherworks, Higherworks fly so high.

I wish every day was the Fourth of July.

I was so proud of him!  Keep it up James!

You know your child is...

far too into electronic stuff when at the pool he says:


Sam:  No James, I'm not ready to play tag yet.  I need to get to the next data point first. (He was talking about the number 6 on the side!)

It's snowing.

Enough said.

Boxer brief underwear

I was feeling crafty today, so I thought I would try to make some boys' underwear out of some old t-shirts I pulled out of my fabric box.  I didn't have a pattern, but it turned out they weren't that tough!  This was a practice pair.  I'm excited to try out some with character print on the bum.

You slept where?

When I went to wake the kids up for school this morning, this is what I found.

Chicken Roll Ups

In lieu of a better name, I call these Chicken Roll Ups.  Paul loved them.

I started with my favorite pizza dough recipe from allrecipes.  Instead of rolling it out right away, I let it rise for about an hour and then punched it down, let it sit for 10 minutes and then rolled it out into a rectangular shape.

Next I added a layer of shredded cheese, a layer of diced onions, a layer of canned chicken, a layer of canned jalapeno peppers, and topped with a sprinkling of chili powder and cumin.

Then I rolled it up, jelly roll style, making sure to pinch the ends underneath so it looks like a french loaf of bread.  

After that, I put melted butter on top, followed by a sprinkling of garlic salt and parsley.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until nice and brown.  It took mine about 25 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly and then serve.  

What I really like about this is how versatile this recipe is.  I put a layer of softened butter on it, sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar, and topped with a thick layer of cookie dough frosting that I had sitting in the refrigerator.  Then I rolled it up jelly roll style, making sure I pinched the ends closed, topped with some melted butter and a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Even Sam approved! (And that is VERY rare!)

Chinese dancing at the library

I absolutely love the free programs that our library has.  Tonight was Chinese Dance.  The kids had a ball.

These are chinese hackey sacks.

I thought I had a video to go with this dance, but I must have not actually pushed the record button.  So instead I have a pic.  Oops!

And finally, the bow dance.

Notice the little girl in the front.  She was such a riot the whole night!

Can you be allergic to exercise?

Talk about itchy all over!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My first ever corned beef.

The boys LOVED these green rolls!

Guessing the word

We've started playing this game when we are on the road where one of us picks a word and says what it begins and ends with and everyone else has to guess it.  The boys absolutely love the game.


Me:  What begins with P and ends with L.
James:  uh.  uh. uh.  I give up.
Me:  It's a name.
James:  uh.  Paul!
Me:  Good job.  Your turn.
James:  Hmmm.  Mom, what letter does chaos start with?
Me:  C
James:  What letter does emerald end with?
Me:  D
James:  Ok.  What begins with a C and ends with a D?
Me:  Hmmm...

Costochondritis

I went to the GI doc today to follow up from some symptoms I still have following the HELLP syndrome in December.  Turns out part of my problem is costochondritis.  He gave me 8 steroid/lidocaine shots around my sternum to ease the pain.  I wish he would have told me it would get worse before it got better!  I might not have gone with the shots. I am SORE! As for the rest of the problem, I have to have an upper endoscopy done next week and a gastric emptying study done the following week.  Good thing we are moving down to Reno...then being to the hospital at 8:00 in the morning won't be such a problem.


And the GOOD news?  I was down 7 pounds from my appointment a couple of weeks ago.  Looks like the oral steroids I'm still on are not causing weight gain, just causing my face to look round!

My 7 year old asked me what?

Today was a snow day.  We've gotten 2 feet of snow so far and it is still snowing.  Not that the snow day would have made a difference as Sam had a fever of 102 again today and James sounds awful.  We spent a few hours of the day watching the final Lord of the Rings movie.  I must add that it is not very fun watching a movie with James because he talks through the whole thing.  And I mean the whole thing!


James:  Mom, what just happened?
Me:  If you were quiet and watched you would know!
James:  Yeah, but what just happened?
Me:  Gollum bit Frodo's finger off to get the ring.
James:  But I didn't see his finger.
Me:  That's because Gollum bit it off!
James:  I see blood on his hand.  Why is there blood on Frodo's hand?
Me:  Because Gollum bit his finger off!
James:  Ok.  Are his platelets okay?

No Longer Homeless

Our lease is up the end of February and we decided it was in our best interest to move from Incline Village to either Reno or Carson City.  We've been looking in Carson mainly for houses or townhomes to rent but haven't had much luck with finding one that seemed to be right for us.  Being the 15th, I was starting to get stressed out about what we were going to do.  So this morning I called the apartment complex in northwest Reno that we used to live in and they have a couple units available that are the townhome style we used to live in.  And they have a garage available.  So we can start moving in this weekend.  As much as I'd rather live in a house, at least I know we have a place now.  Other plusses are we know the ward already, it's within walking distance to the elementary school and 5 minutes from the temple.  It's definitely downsizing, but maybe we'll be ready to buy when this lease is up.  A girl can always hope, right?

Toasted Eggs Anyone?

In preparation for a lesson on the food pyramid at cub scouts this afternoon, I decided to make some hard boiled eggs.  I put six eggs in the pot, covered it with cold water and put it on the stove to boil.  I left the kitchen for a minute so I could get my phone.  I had wanted to see how Oliver was doing.  So I went to my room, picked up the phone and texted Kelsie.  Then I saw my computer on my bed so I turned it on and got on craigslist to look at places for rent.  I found out how Oliver was doing continued texting Kelsie.  Then Kelsie called and we talked for a little while.  Soon I started to smell food cooking.  It actually smelled good, but I wasn't cooking anything.  So I asked Sam if he was cooking and he yelled back at me that he was upstairs on the computer.  I quickly got up off my bed and headed to the kitchen.  I WAS cooking something.  I had left the eggs on long enough to boil the pan dry and burn the whole eggs.  And you know what????  Eggs POP when they are dry roasted.  I had egg all over the place!  Guess I learned my lesson.  I managed to turn things around though by salvaging the cracked eggs and making a heavenly egg salad sandwich.  But alas, no hard boiled eggs for scouts today.

Good News Appointments

I had a follow up OB appointment yesterday and a nephrologist appointment today.  And I'm excited to say that the OB said possibly in a couple years if I would like to try again he would be willing to go there.  Not that I'm sure I would want to risk it, but it was nice to hear that there is a possibility.

Then on to the nephrologist today.  My protein levels are at my normal levels again.  A little higher than a regular person's, but within remission levels for me!!! WOOHOO! That means that I get to start the taper down of the steroids and I'm so excited for that.  I will remain on the immunosuppressants but as long as I'm not on the prednisone I'm okay with that.

It's nice to have some good news for a change!

Mexican Pork Chops

I pulled some pork chops out of the freezer a few days ago and then when I was at the grocery store yesterday, I picked up some roma tomatoes and avacado that was on sale.  Knowing I needed to use up the pork chops, I decided to make a mexican style pork chop.  These turned out delicious!

Mexican Pork Chops

2 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tbsp cumin

1/2 tsp oregano

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

juice of one lemon

4 thick cut pork chops

2 tbsp oil

1/2 cup water

1.  Mix all dry seasonings together. (Alternately you could use a package of store bought taco seasoning if you would like.) Rub onto pork chops.  Place pork chops in a bag and add the juice of one lemon.  Refrigerate for a couple of hours.

2.  Heat oil over medium heat until hot.  Add pork chops to brown both sides. When pork chops are brown, add water to pan and cover.  Cook until internal temp reaches 150 degrees F. Remove from pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving.

I served mine on a bed of homemade spanish rice.  I'll post that recipe when I make one I really like.  I also served with homemade refried beans and my yummy Avocado Salsa.