happy birthday, k!!
Oops! I forgot to post this earlier, but:
(My youngest brother turned 14 today… sorry we missed the party, but we were thinking of you!)
September 30, 2006
finally!
(just testing something… check back if you don’t see something cute!)
Update:Its not working yet. Maybe I’ll have Fuul take a look at it when he gets home. Really, check back: its worth it!
Update:Well, now the code shows up. But that’s not what I’m looking for.
Update: Is it better? The Q shows up….
Update: It’s alive! ALIVE!!!
[QUICKTIME http://tulips.fluidnature.com/wp-content/fluidimagegroup/body/20060930_131.MOV 320 257 false true]
(Link to the site where I got the plugin… also has good pointers, and more in comments)
shopping
AE and I went shopping this morning, with less than stellar accomplishments.
We got Fuul’s stomach meds (he ran out Thursday! OOPS!). His other meds can’t be filled until Monday, but they haven’t run out, so its not a problem.
We went to the library to try and find the Signing Exact English book for my class on Monday. (I’ve looked around and can’t find the version I want locally, so I was going to check one out of the library to cover me while I order one online). I checked online yesterday, and it said that they had two copies on the shelves at my local branch. Well, I did’t write down the reference numbers, because I figured I’d just look it up on their computers real quick when I got there, and save having to keep track of a little number. Only, when we got to the library, they were without power: some utility workers down the road had cut a power main, and the whole block was powerless. A nice librarian helped me look at the non-fiction section with sign language books, to no avail. She even helped scope out the reference section. Seems that those books that are supposed to be on the shelves at the branch are just missing. She made a note, and I left empty-handed.
We stopped by the local Borders, but they didn’t have it in stock, either. (They said we could order it, but that does me no better than ordering it and having it delivered here to my own house!)
We went to the fabric store and shopped for ideas for the stockings I am supposed to do for the Super Saturday that is but a week away! Ack! We came away with 6 yards of white tulle; 2 yards of white polar fleece; about 130 silk poinsettias; 48 yards 1/8″ white grossgrain ribbon; 150 clear snowflake beads; 300 clear round beads; 300 red round beads; a garland of clear, irridescent snowflakes; a bottle of irridescent glitter; and two big bottles of Tacky Glue. So, now what?? I have a thousand ideas, and none, and don’t really know what I’m doing! I suppose that after dinner I’m going to have to figure out something!
We went to the grocery store: cereal at diapers. Diapers were a good price (got to remember that for next time!) and the cereal was all on sale for under $2 a box, so we bought about 10. (Might last us this next week. sigh) We also got a couple of roasts ($4-something a piece) and some stew meat (its already in the crockpot for stroganoff tonight!)
And now we are home, EK is upset because Fuul and DA had to take off for the evening Priesthood meeting at the Stake Center, and CC is teething and grumpy and wants to be held all the time. But what else is new!
Maybe if I figure out what I’m doing with the stocking stuff, I’ll take some pictures and post them here… Fuul thinks I should figure out some way to make them like scrapbook pages, that you can insert pictures into. If I could do them ’sewing’ instead of just ‘craft’, I’d do a lot of really cool things… but I can’t. (Too many non-sewing people will come to the Super Saturday expecting to not have to sew. I’m already thinking of having to slide a little bit of hand stitching with the ribbon past them… Unless I can pre-sew everything, but then, do I want to do that??)
funeral potatoes
Funeral Potatoes
Funeral potatoes is an easy dish that you will find at a lot of funerals in Utah. Since it is so easy and tasty, it also shows up at other gatherings: weddings, birthday parties (especially those “special” ones like 30th, 40th, 50th…)
INGREDIENTS:
6-8 medium pre-cooked potatoes (or a 2-lb pkg of frozen hash browns)
1/4 cup diced onion
1 can (10 ¾ oz.) cream of chicken soup (or cream of celery)
1/2 soup can milk
1 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup crumbs*
3** tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, gratedPREPARATION:
- Heat oven to 350 deg.
- Thaw frozen potatoes or cook fresh potatoes and cut into cubes (skin on or peeled to taste).
- Place potatoes in a greased 2-3 quart casserole dish or a 9×13 cake pan.
- Saute onion in 1T of the butter and spread over potatoes.
Combine soup, milk, sour cream and salt and pepper to taste. For a creamier dish, add 2-3 tablespoons additional milk. Mix well. Spread sauce over potato/onion mixture.- Melt butter and combine with crumbs. Sprinkle crumbs over mixture.
- Sprinkle cheese over mixture.
- Bake uncovered at 325 deg F for 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly throughout.
- This recipe serves approximately 8, and is often served with ham and green beans.
*Many things can be used for crumbs, such as corn flakes or Chex cereal, bread crumbs, French’s fried onions, or potato chips)
**If using the French’s fried onions, there is no need to saute them in butter, so you need only 1T of butter for the onions.
Man, if these weren’t just comfort food in spades! (I could eat this all day long!!) I really like to use the corn flakes as the topping. And, instead of putting the cheese on top of the crumb topping — I wonder if that might not be a misprint in the original recipe? — I actually mix the grated cheese into the sauce when I put it over the potatoes.
MMM, mmm, good!
September 29, 2006
honey glaze chicken
Honey Glazed Chicken
6 whole chicken breasts, thawed
1/2 cup butter (or margarine)
1/2 cup honey
2-3 T. prepared mustard
1/2 t. saltMelt butter. Mix in honey, mustard, and salt.
Spread over thawed chicken breasts in casserole dish. Bake uncovered 350 degrees, basting occasionally, for one hour or until chicken is cooked through.
The kids — and even Fuul! — loved this when I tried it for dinner the other night. Said I should do it more often! (I served it with Funeral Potatoes — yum yum!)
September 28, 2006
baby o: going home!
I just got the call from my mom: they are driving Baby O home from 
the hospital! Her bilirubin numbers are down, her weight is up (1 ounce, but we’ll take it!), and they are on their way!
Mom said they took pictures of O in her carseat — I’ll try to post one when they send them to me!
Woohoo!
(Now, I have to figure out if I am shipping these boxes of ’stuff’ to them, or using their delivery as an excuse to visit! — They need an extra 8 or 9 people at their house right after they bringhome a new baby, right??? LOL)
September 27, 2006
baby o update
I talked with my mom this afternoon, and baby O is still in the hospital: her bilirubin count is up, and she was sleeping too long in between feedings, so they have her staying and sleeping under the bili-lights. M had to be discharged (her insurance wouldn’t cover her staying any longer), but the hospital is allowing her to ’stick around’ while O is under the lights.
Her bili numbers were coming down the last I heard, so hopefully she will be all better and on her way home very soon!
(I wish that CC would have been kept in the hospital when he was born and his numbers were up, rather that our having to make daily trips to the doctor’s office to have his bili levels checked for the first week — and checked, and checked, and treated with sunlight, and finally finished!)
ack!
I have to have all of my ‘planning’ done for the Super Saturday stuff today — this morning — because the Enrichment people want to send out an informational email this evening… and I have to figure out what my second project is going to be, so I can write up my blurb.
I guess I’m off to the fabric store (on my ‘busy’ day of the week, as well!) ACK! indeed!
September 26, 2006
s.e.e.
I took my first class yesterday in SEE (Signing Exact English). It is offered through the local children’s hospital, and most of the students in the class are either staff at the hospital who come into regular contact with hearing-impaired children, parents of hearing impaired or language delayed children, and audiology students.
Class started off slow — it is a beginning introductory class to sign, so they started with the assumption that no one knew any sign language at all* — and went over basic hand shapes and the alphabet, then ran through a whole slew of words and modefiers and markers.
We have homework: there are a set of sentences that we need to be able to ‘translate’ into SEE before class next week. Its not too bad so far. And I still need to get out and buy the ‘textbook‘ — essentially its just a dictionary with images for how to sign all the words.
An aside: I had been asking people who deal with language delays and children who have the 1p36 deletion syndrome like EK, and some of them said that they looked into SEE but discarded it ultimately because the complex handshapes required didn’t work out for their child. I was immediately ready to be disappointed and easily discard the SEE idea as a feasible means of communication.
But, I got to thinking: when my babies learn to talk, and they are unable to articulate the complex oral language that I have been modelling for them, I don’t just discard it as too hard. I keep offering it, modelling it, and taking what they are capable of returning. So, if I can learn the SEE signs, and use them consistently, and teach my children and Fuul to learn them, and EK learns only the rudimentary signs in return — baby talk SEE, for lack of a better term — then she’s still better off, because she is capable of recognizing the information, even if she can’t parrot it back ‘word for word’.
So, I think I’ll stick with this, and see what EK is capable of acquiring as well!
(Now, my only problem is figuring out how to ‘talk’ with two hands while holding a baby boy! LOL Should be fun!)
*I knew most of the information presented at the beginning of the class, but did pick up a lot of ‘fine tuning’ points. They offer an intermediate class that runs simultaneously, and I’m not sure that I’m quite to that level, having not seen the SEE program before, but I do feel a little ‘over-prepared’ for the beginning class. But maybe that will be to my advantage? That I’m not already feeling overwhelmed??
stuck for ideas?
Via Millie at What on Earth is that Smell? : 
one hundred halloween costume ideas!
I have to agree with her, the Alien Abduction costume is pretty cool… I wonder if one of my kids might like that one?? (But only if they do the work… I’m so not into anything more involved than opening up the three halloween boxes and dragging out ‘instant costumes!’ LOL)
September 25, 2006
welcome, baby
She certainly is a cutie!
6lbs 2oz
18 1/2 inches
… and she has Grandma J’s scowl! (Its a brand, I tell ya!)
m. updates
10:30am:
I talked to my mom, and she said that M. has been up with contractions for 2 nights, is miserable, and has been sent home from the hospital twice so far. Poor M!! (Ctx 2-3 minutes apart, 2cm dilated).
12:30pm:
They finally broke down and headed back to the hospital. M is still miserable. But — good news! — her water broke on the way into the birthing center, and when they checked her, she is between 7 and 8 cm! Any time now!!
(I keep finding myself breathing those labor-breaths… I hope she is finding some kind of relaxation for herself!)
More as I know more!
1:25pm:
Welcome, Baby O! Congratulations, Z & M!!
Baby O was born at 1:25ish (according to the proud Grandpa who called with the news!) No further details as of yet, but we are so excited for them!!
Woohoo!!!
crockpot chicken taco soup
I found a recipe last week for Crockpot Chicken Taco Soup, and tried it out! It turned out really yummy (particularly if I stirred some sour cream and grated cheese into it, and dipped chips in to eat it!) The kids even liked it a lot (Fuul, not so much, since he’s not big on beans!)
I thought I’d add the recipe here, so I don’t forget about it the next time I’m looking for something warm and yummy to eat!
(Note: I substitued 12 ounces of chicken broth for the beer in the recipe, for what its worth!)
Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup
(more…)
September 24, 2006
t minus… some time?
My sister-in-law, M., just posted that she may be in early labor 
(already a trip to the hospital today, to be sent home!).
Looks like teasing the 39-week-pregnant lady isn’t a nice thing to do! LOL Oops!
So, anyone who wants to send her some quick, easy labor vibes… she’s accepting!
(If I hear more from her, I’ll post here… unless she objects!)
(Yes, I’m so excited to get a new little one in our family!!)
love one another…
I saw this picture pop up on my ‘My Pictures’ slideshow thing that runs on my sidebar, and just couldn’t resist finding a couple of shots that show my kids at their best… because what better is there on a Sunday afternoon??
So, enjoy! (I know I will!)
