rain on tulips

I finished assembling CC’s Christmast stocking this afternoon — I sewed on the beads last night, then did the assembly and embroidering the name this afternoon.

So, two tiny parts down… ten thousand to go!

Three days housebound by snow, and the first day kids could go back to school, the day EK’s been waiting for her follow-up swallow study:

DA, EK, & CC are home with some kind of stomach virus.

And me? I’m not feeling 100% myself.

At least Fuul called in sick, so it isn’t just me against the sickies!

My girls love to draw. They have purchased several ‘how to draw’ books just in the last couple of months.

And now, I’ve found (via Lilting House) an entire site on how to draw things! Woohoo! I can’t wait to show it to them!

The kids and I set up the Christmas tree this afternoon… nothing is on it yet but the prestrung lights (we went ‘fake’ last year), but its up!

And EK is giggling-thrilled, and CC just wants a bottle. Maybe he’ll be more interested when he’s better rested?

Had I known that we were going to be housebound here at home by all the ice and snow, we would have stayed at the Grandparent’s and gone to karate for 3 days before we headed back! (And maybe longer… there is supposed to be more snow again tonight! Even Fuul’s offices are closed, and he’s working online instead of driving in. We could’a done that from the dojo!!)

*sigh*

Happy however many years, Fuul! Love you!!

It was an overcast afternoon in November two years ago when we welcomed our little EK into the world. The day was planned — Fuul and I had handpicked it as being a fair length of time before my due date, and the doctor we liked was on call that day — and the kids were all carted off to school and friends’ homes for the day. We went to the hospital ready for the presumed quick labor, ready for the easy transition to being parents of a newborn again, ready — in our cocky, ‘been there, done that’ attitudes of parenthood — to just take the whole thing in stride and rush forward with the business of raising (now) six beautiful, smart, wonderful children. Because we knew what mattered was that constant drive, the constant activity. Because we knew what mattered.

One might think I would have had a clue that, well, I didn’t have a clue, when EK’s birth took turn after turn away from the simple, typical births of my older children: labor stalled at 5 or 6cm; there was meconium when my water broke; labor had to be augmented with pitocin; EK weighed much less than we expected; she had trouble maintaining her blood sugar and body temperature; and, my epidural resulted in a spinal headache that lasted two weeks before we realized there was treatment for the pain. (Granted, the last had little to do with EK’s differences, but it was just another piece of that ‘different’ start that we undertook). (more…)

I guess someone up there thought that, after four days off, one day back was enough before we needed another break: everything is shut down for snow and ice today, so we’re all home, waiting to see if things clear up by this evening (we’re supposed to be at a Den Meeting, a Court of Honor Review, and the RS Christmas Party — all at 7pm!).

The news says that some people sat in their cars for up to 8 hours trying to get home from the evening commute last night; I’m so glad that Fuul got on a shuttle before it got too bad, and that we didn’t wind up having to drive out to the other side of the lake to get him: I don’t think my littlest kids would have taken kindly to another long chunk of time in the truck!

I’ve already been repeatedly accosted by children who want to get outside and throw snowballs. I’m thinking its too cold, and we don’t have decent gloves for most of them… it doesn’t snow here, why would we!?

So.

(I took a couple of pictures last night of the snow falling on my truck out front: we were around 3 inches here at 7pm. I’ll try to get something uploaded later today, and maybe attach it here!)

(Updated to add photo)

I did the oatmeal last night… even got up and turned the crockpot to ‘keep warm’ at the appointed time…

Apparently my crockpot ‘keep warm’s a little too well: between the time I switched it and the time we got up to eat, the milk in the oatmeal scalded, and all of it tasted a little bit burnt.

And it smelled so so so good before that!

I’ll probably make another go of it sometime, but not today.

(I’m eating leftover biscuit breadsticks from dinner last night for breakfast instead.)

So, last night we had meat over pasta (like the Pasta Taco Salad without the salad — no lettuce! — and added a can of diced tomatoes), and then we topped it with grated cheese and sour cream, and ate it with chips. Yumm!

Today: the crockpot is holding an experimental dish, based on some ‘fantastically wonderful’ pasta sauce Fuul had at work the other day:

Chicken Tomato Pasta Sauce

• 2 cans (15oz) diced tomatoes with oregano, basil & garlic
• 2 large chicken breasts
• 2 T. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp ground oregano
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• 2 T fresh basil, minced
• 1 small can tomato paste
• 1 T sugar

Place all ingredients except tomato paste and sugar in crock pot and cook on high for 4-6 hours. About a half hour before serving, shred chicken and return to the sauce, and stir in the tomato paste and sugar. Serve over hot pasta with parmesan cheese and garlic bread.

We’ll see if it works out all right (I think it might be a little thinner than I’d like), and I’ll update after we eat.

And! If I think about it, I’ll try to have the crockpot cleaned out by bedtime tonight, and give Mom to the Screaming Masses’ Deluxe Crockpot Oatmeal:

Deluxe Crockpot Oatmeal

• 1 C quick cooking oats
• 2 C milk
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1 T butter melted
• 1/4 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1 C finely chopped apple
• 1/2 C raisins and/or dates
• 1/2 C chopped walnuts or almonds

Grease the inside of Crockpot. Throw all ingredients inside Crockpot and mix well. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 9 hours. Stir before serving.

(Photos taken 11/24/2006, on the day baby O was blessed…)

Its a good thing we came home last night* instead of tonight: there is snow falling at our house this evening, and the interstate not far north of us has snow on the roads. I wonder if we’re looking at another vacation day come tomorrow morning, with snow on the roads???

I got a bit of a nap this afternoon, and now I’ve got to go figure out what to do with the taco-seasoned roast I have in the crockpot (I’ll shred it and then either put it over pasta with beans and sour cream, or wrap it in tortillas. Or something).

*We finally left the grandparent’s home after 10 last night, after a marathon Starcraft-fest with Grandpa and Fuul and my brothers and all the kids, and made the whole trip in the requisite 4 hours (give or take a few minutes!). The downside was that I forgot I had collapsed CC’s crib before we left, thinking we’d take it with us, so I was reassembling it at 2:30 this morning so he could sleep in it!

Well, its after 5 and we’ve not left to go home yet. We all got up, got packed up, visited with some old friends for a while, and Fuul decided that he needed to play a game or two of Starcraft with Grandpa D. That was 4 hours ago!

I think the consensus now is that we will play here and eat dinner, then load into the truck around 9ish, so the kids can sleep while we drive home. Fuul says he will drive, so I don’t have to try to stay up too late.

Hope we can make it in time to sleep a bit before we have to make it to church in the morning! (GC is supposed to give a talk in primary!)

Ah, the lovely tradition of Black Friday: the first official day of Holiday Shopping the morning after Thanksgiving!

Fuul and I tried to get up early to get out to all the sales this morning, but we didn’t wind up actually getting out of bed until around 7ish. (Between going to bed far too late and then being up a couple of times with little ones awake, we’d not slept nearly enough!)

The good thing, though: we got most of the things we were after (a few we knew were limited availability, and it made it nice not even expecting to find them!) and found a few fun bonuses as well. Too much stuff in the back of the truck for the trip home, but its nice having a big chunk of the shopping done for Christmas!

This afternoon Z&M blessed O, and, while the entire family was present, we did a slew of family pictures: Grandparents alone & with grandkids and with their kids and with their kids and spouses and with everyone, and a few of the grandkids alone and the different family groups. I think among all the shots there are at least a few worth saving and printing! I have copies of everything, and I’ll try to put one or two up after I get them downloaded off the camera!

Tonight we spent the evening visiting The Neighbors*, had a great spaghetti dinner, and lots of good conversation! OH! And they still had Monday’s episode of Heroes on their DVR, so we got to see that too! It was great catching up, and letting them meet CC, and to see how big all of our respective kids have grown! I hope we can do it again sooner than another entire year from now! (The last time we saw them was when we were down for Z&M’s wedding last November!)

The plan is that we will leave tomorrow to head home again. I’m not sure what time. I’d like to think that I can get some sleep — some good sleep! — before then! But, I guess we’ll see what happens!

*They were the first neighbors we met when we bought our house in 1999, and over time they became The Neighbors: no names or other qualifiers needed! They are the ones who we made the tie-dyed tshirts with, and who we went on countless shopping trips and zoo trips and barbecues with! I think they are the most missed part of our lives since we moved North!

The four hour drive down last night took nearly 9 hours (the first 3 hours, we travelled a total of 37 miles… woohoo!), so we didn’t arrive until nearly 11pm. Stayed up until 1 visiting. (Kids too!)

Today we have done the big dinner with extended family, and leftover turkey sandwiches this evening… plus more jello salads than any sane person needs… but whoever claimed to be sane!?

We’ve enjoyed getting to meet baby O, and visit with family. And now, if I could shake off this turkey-induced coma, I’m going to head back to it!

Hope everyone else has had a nice day, as well!!