Tuesday, November 15, 2011

AHAHAHA!

It just keeps getting trickier! I tried to comment on my own post, a very funny quip, if I must say. And when I hit the comment button, it told me that my account did not have access to view this blog!!!!!!!!!

Blogger, there is something weird going on!

Not Me Monday

Well, I apparently did not create a not me blog post yesterday evening. I did not save it. How can you save something you did not create? Hmmm? I did not inadvertantly erase it. There was nothing to erase! I do not have a not me post this morning.










So! Here I go again . . .

I did not carve our Halloween pumpkin on Wednesday, Nov. 9.




I also did not stage a Halloween reinactment yesterday so I could get pictures of our kids in their costumes, because we did not forget to do it on Halloween. Not us.


I did not let the time run away with me; I never do that. Not ever. And this losing of time did not create crying and flailing llamas out of my children because my children are never stressed out because of hunger because I never forget to prepare their lunch! HA!


What is it?


It's a cricket! And a beautiful boy!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Maddy's Birthday

Today is Maddy's birthday. I still believe her life happened (and is happening) just as it was meant to. I have no regrets. But I do wonder sometimes these days as I watch her brother and sisters grow, Where is my 6 year old? What would it be like to have a 4th child included in this herd of cats? hehe. Okay, Sarah, they aren't bad, just busy. : )
I do think she would look like her sisters, and wonder what her favorite fruit would be. She would be so great at being a kindergartener this year.

As always, I love talking about her, our story of having our first child. I thought alot about it over the last few days; well, truly the last month. If you know Maddy's story, the next two paragraphs are just a repeat you can skip if you don't have the time.


This year the days all fall on the same day everything happened in 2005. Ben and I found a sweet, clean, beautiful home in October of 2005 and moved on Monday, Oct. 31. The Friday before that was Oct. 28. A dr appointment for me. Stress test. Maddy did not pass: C+. That may be good for school, but it is not good for a baby. Still, since we already knew her condition, we didn't do anything. On Friday Nov. 4 I started to think about her birth and keeping her as comfortable as possible and wanted to have her at a heart hospital in Pensacola so I called the dr to discuss it. There was conversation over the phone but we decided to wait until my next appointment to make real decisions. That first weekend in our new home was wonderful. We unpacked some boxes, relaxed, went for a walk to the beach and on the beach. Yes, our new home was 2 blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. Oh we miss that home. The walk was wonderful. Went to work Monday, and Tuesday, Nov. 8 was my appointment. The dr was very open to my questions and my desires, and even though I went there to convince her to let me have Maddy in Pensacola, I don't remember what we actually decided. At the end of the appointment, I asked to hear her heartbeat. Sadly, it could not be found. An ultrasound confirmed that Maddy's heart was no longer beating. The discussion started anew: What do we do now?

Simply enough, I was given the luxury of giving simple bloodwork, leave to go home, and a pill to start labor when I was ready. Those things were truly a gift, to let us decide when we were ready. I thank my dr for her consideration of me, and her obvious insight in what was best for me. Her behaviour and decisions throughout our pregnancy showed that she was a good but young dr and some things could have been handled better. This special thing she did for me was perfect. Ben and I went to get some things we wanted for her birth, went to eat, and started the medicine before bed. Labor happened so quickly I didn't really know what was going on. We started the hour long drive to the hospital at 12:30 am, arrived in the parking lot at 1:45 am, and she was born at 2:33 am early Wednesday morning, November 9, 2005.



I love remembering! And yesterday was a beautiful day here, warm, windy, reminded me of walking on the beach in Santa Rosa, and if I had had the choice, I would have kidnapped Ben from work and driven straight there, just to feel the wind on my face there again.

Now to make a birthday treat! : )

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

No, I did not do that, and neither did Katie. : )

This is another Not Me! Monday post on Tuesday, which I am sure is likely to happen often. I just skipped out on it yesterday. Blogging is just not as important as feeding children, washing leftovers off the house, and sunbathing during nap time. No, that was not me who sat out on the patio soaking up some sun at 3pm, ignoring the inner workings of our home when I heard my son shout, "Mama, Liv is crying!" faintly through the back door, and no it was not me who was amazed to hear a screaming 16 mo old when I opened the door. Not me.

I absolutely did not spend way too much time last week trying to figure out how to link the original Not Me! Monday blog to my own, only to fail 3 times. There are clear instructions, yet somehow I manage to not be able to follow them.


It was not me who considered hiring a sitter one day last week so I could lock myself in the bedroom for 5 hours, catch up on blogs, read recipes and discover this 'pinterest' everyone is using. Actually, this is not a bad idea, glad I did not think of it.


Who put nail shavings in a drawer and the clipper in the trash? Certainly, it was not me.
Who gave the baby a pen and notepad and expect her to stay in the kitchen like her sister and brother? It was absolutely not the same person who did not just wash that same couch cushion three days earlier and now has to wrestle to get it back on again. Oh, that was so not me.

And I absolutely did not leave the kitchen with freshly frosted confectionaries and little people alone after dinner so I could 'veg' out on the couch in front of the t.v. only to gasp in pure surprise 3 seconds later when Liv came around the corner with her own chocolate cupcake from off the kitchen counter that I thought was out of her reach. And no, it was not Katie who gave it to her after getting one for herself. And I did not curse in my brain about the situation because I had already given them each one after dinner, cleaned everybody up and placed in new outfits only to have to do it all again. And just to be clear Katie had not already snuck a second one while I was cleaning Liv the first time, which would then not make this her 3rd cupcake for the night. This did not happen to me last night. I also did not let Eddie in on the additional cupcakes, so sadly he did not get but one. : (



This is the second cupcake. Joy!


And I am not disappointed that the original Not Me! Monday also had other priorities this week and therefore did not post a not me blog thus resulting in no one else's horrible not me stories to laugh at. (Though really I'm just upset there is no prize to shoot for this week.)

Monday, October 10, 2011

Not Me Mondays!

I did not watch for 3 seconds before correcting Liv as she pressed her face against the McDonald's Playland door and washed the glass with her tongue. Not Me!
I did not have 3 separate incidents of accidentally ingesting disgusting and gag producing things in less that a 24 hour period.
There was most definitely not an old cup of tea in my car this weekend that was automatically sipped upon!
I did not take a bedtime swig from a bottle of water off the table only to find pieces of SOMETHING floating around in my mouth (thank you children). Aaack!!!!
My hands DID NOT resort to muscle memory while cooking breakfast and bring my finger to my mouth after moving the bowl I just made biscuit batter in only to realize it wasn't anything more than raw egg. Not me!
Thinking of these imaginary things does not make me cringe with disgust because I didn't do them. Not me.

: )

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Kids are hilarious

Yesterday morning Eddie and Katie were playing with their toy strollers and babys. Eddie was following Katie around, using a baby voice, saying, "Mommy, milk! Milk! Milk, Mama!" Katie replied, "But I don't have milk, my nipples aren't big enough."
They then continued to have a conversation about how her nipples were too small, that she need to eat good food so her nipples would grow big, and how Eddie's nipples did not get milk because that is not what daddy's do.

In the evening we were all watching a movie together, all five of us lined up on the couch, sucked into this movie. Everything had been quite, when suddenly this high pitched little voice says, "Hey Eddie! Smell my feet!" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Gluten Free Lava Cake

I still don't know how I am going to get the picture from my phone to my blog, but here is the recipe!

Gluten Free Lava Cake

8 oz semisweet chocolate pieces
10 oz butter
1/2 cup gluten free bisquick
1 cup powdered sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease 6 ramekins with butter. Melt chocolate and butter in microwave or double boiler. Add flour and sugar to chocolate mixuture. Stir in eggs and yolks until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Divide batter evenly among ramekins, Place in oven and bake for 14 minutes.

Now, I altered this recipe, and am even thinking of altering it more. You absolutely could not tell these were gf. The cake had no grittyness or sandyness at all. But it did seem quite cakey, where the lava cakes I have had in the past were more crusty. I may use just a gf flour, like almond flour, instead of bisquick, since it has other cooking agents in it. And, I only had 3 ramekins, so I filled them 2/3 full, and poured the rest into a 7 in ceramic dish. Oddly, the big one was really gooey in the middle, though it cooked much longer than the little ones.

Regardless of how you decide to cook it, both ways were very good, and great over ice cream!

Chris, I suggest you try this for your family and don't tell them it is gf and see if they can tell.

Not Me Mondays! (Tuesday this week)

Well, this blog has been important to me in the past, and even though it has been over two years since I have posted on it and a HUGE amount of things have happened since then, it has still been on my mind. Maddy's story is very much important to me, but will wait for now. One day I will get it all done!
This blog renewal is actually in response to one blog I read who has Not Me Mondays. She invites her readers to also have Not Me Mondays, and possibly win something from her! ; )

I would never do something just to win a prize, not me!
I never wait too long to cook dinner, resulting in complete meltdown of the children, not me!
I would never eat a day old cookie from the car, even if it was my favorite and never just to make it easier to clean out the car, not me!
I have never flung a diaper off my baby so fast, not realizing there was small rabbit poo inside which then proceeded to fall all over her and the changing table, not me! The absolutely did not happen to me yesterday, as I was in the middle of dinner and children melting down and my head ablaze with crushing sinus pressure and ears red with fire! Not me, and never on a Monday, the day of all days, would I do that!

Check out this awesome GLUTEN FREE Lava Cake I made last week!
IT WAS SOOOOOOO GOOD!
Oh, picture, where are you? Oh, wait. That picture is on my phone. Drat. I'll have to figure this thing out a little more . . .