gloomy out

again.
We had a few great days there.
I'm actually going to spend today back posting Nonnas visit with pictures too.
I know its cheating a bit, but I don't mind if you who's reading doesn't.

8yr anniversary

Our wedding day

A day at home

Pretty much at home all day. We just chilled today.
Mom & I hit the BX real quick and got her an external hard drive.
We also hit the Asian Market right out the front gate and picked up some beef mandu, kim bop, kimchi sidedishes, rice sticks. YumYum.
J had a dentist appt. this afternoon for his second crown. The boy is my little trooper, he did so well.
C will be returning with Nonna & Rich for half the summer. This will be great for him, to be able to tune up his bow shooting, learn to drive, and chill for a bit without his siblings.
I think next year A should go.

Taste of Tacoma

It's Sunday. Lily & Jimmy flew out today.
Before they did though we hit the Taste of Tacoma at Point Defiance Park
Sadly no pictures of this. The big boys choose not to attend with us.
There was a ton of vendors both food and crafts.
I would really enjoy going again next year with a bit more money and time.

Wolf Haven

Today is our first real day with Nonna, Rich, Lily & Jimmy.

Hubby is still tied up resting so he wont be able to travel around with us the next few days.

We went to Wolf Haven a bit down south from us.

The drive was pretty quick. We arrived had a picnic did a small tour and headed out on our way.

I got more flower pictures than wolf pictures but it was a nice day all in all.






Lily & Jimmy cooked up dinner. There where a few things I'd never had so now I know how to cook them I will be adding them into our menus.

follow up

for hubby went well today. Not much was said. He gets 60 days off work & should start water therapy soon.

Personally- I'm too tired to write.

cleaning day.....

That's what today was.
For mom at least.
Never ending laundry is still going at 11:30 pm but all visible rooms are dusted, vacuumed & scrubbed.
I'm off to do the bathrooms & hang tons of laundry now.

Not much to post on the family.

J & L ran around out back with the water hose today.
They also got their room redone with 2 toddler beds now.
The game room got a twin bed as a couch now.
C helped with the salad for dinner.
A choose to not do his chore this morning & to be late, resulting in a few instant 3's.

Nonna comes tomorrow!

Sunshine!

Today was beautiful!!!
After coffee the two little ones & I washed the van, vacuumed it and even detailed it, woohoo.
It took all day but was so worth it in the bright shinning sun.
Then J & L wanted to try and play in the water but they soon realized it was way to cold, silly kids.
The house is getting Nonna ready. It's 11:30pm & there's 5 loads of laundry on the couch that I need to conquer before bed, but tomorrow is dedicated to cleaning only.

nothing got done

absolutely nothing I say.
Where did today go?
What did we do?
I know the kids watched Ponyo for the 5th time this week :)
I know C was late getting home today:(
Oh well, lets see what tomorrow brings.

Fathers Day '10

Pancakes & Presents for Daddy!
We all slept in, which is odd in this house for all of us too.
I started breakfast- eggs, beans, sausage, pancakes, tortillas & toast.
We all didn't eat everything but we all had what we wanted/liked.
The big boys bought cards & the little ones made theirs.
We got daddy season 5 & 6 of Raymond, book 4 of Rurouni Kenshin & a $15 ITunes cards.
We let daddy rest without us for a bit while we all went out back and did yard work.
Then Cheesecake to top off the night:)

Nonna's coming!

5 more days until mama gets here!

The house is a wreck, I need to clean everything.

The kids are getting excited.

The 24th is a half/last day for the big boys.
Hubby has a follow up at 3.
That night Nonna, Rich, Aunt Lily & Jimmy all arrive.

The 25 I have a Crafts Fair at 430.

I'm not ready at all for any of this!

surgery 3

The last two days have been going alright.
J is taken it hard that daddy can't do anything & that he's sleeping more than usual. L is ok. The big boys are acting normal, I guess.
I feel it as a strain alittle more than usual.
Hubby is up & smoking & going to the bathroom, other than that he's in bed resting. Today he got a really bad migraine & then it turned into a fever of 100. I called it in but they said its normal since the spinal fully wore off & all the surgery meds are now out of his system. I kept him feed and hydrated and now he seems a bit better, still getting the sweats though.
Tomorrow the bandage comes off and I gotta be the one to remove it. I don't like doing these type things, I'm always worried of whats under them, stitches stuck to bandages, puss, infection, gooey gross stuff. Wish me luck.

surgery 2

So everything went smoothly, the actual work took a bit longer then estimated. Hubby got a spinal so he was actually awake for bits & pieces, he remembers mumbling here & there & even seeing his insides on the TV screen. (silly man of mine)
Doc told me all looked good, they sucked out the floating cartilage debree and buffed up the outer cartilage rim & even did some bone scrapping to get a ball on his hip, it was pretty flat & causing damage/friction.
Hubby was pretty out of it. it took awhile for him to get coherent and be able to sit and move into a wheel chair. so we could leave.
Getting meds was a whole nether story. They gave us a scrip so we could bring it to our hospital on base, the main pharmacy was closed, so we tried through the in house/er pharmacy, no go, so we had to go to Walgreens get the script in and wait, yes wait 45 more mins. By the time we got his meds it was actually 45 mins later then when he was due to take them.
We got home, hubby slept soundly, I was up here & there.

surgery

Today is hubby's surgery. We are getting ready now to go up to Seattle.
The 2 little ones will go to the sitter & the two big ones will have to stay home alone tonight.
It hasn't kicked in for me yet I guess, hubby isn't talking to much about it.
We shall see.
I'll update more later.

dinner & a movie

The man & I went to our favorite Restaurant tonight.
Adriatic Grill
This is our date night spot, none of our kids go or ever will go with us.
It's to nice & perfect just as is with the two of us.
Usually I do gf there as with at home but tonight I cheated, I just had to.
Our order consisted was
Grilled Capresse Skewers & Calamari
Garlic Topped Steak & Classic Margherita Pizza

Then we hit the movies, we saw Killers, it was cute & funny.
We laughed through most of it. It was nice to see a comedy this time around.

week 2

of limited TV time.
Last week went quite well.
We let it slide on the weekend but it wasn't really that much more.
I noticed the 2 little ones are struggling to play & entertain themselves a bit but they will adjust.
We have been able to go outside with the pretty weather so that's been helpful. We also have scheduled homework/study time after lunch, J has been really enjoying that.
Our sandbox arrived this afternoon so we'll get the sand tomorrow, that will be another hour or two a day to look forward to.

Dash Pt park & pier

Today was perfect for the beach. The water was way low but it was still so fun.
No argueing, yelling, hitting, complaining. :)

Today was....

....absolutely gorgeous out!
Hopefully this means the weather will be nice and summery for a few months (we can hope).
We had a picnic on the front lawn, played in the slip n slide for a bit, cleaned out the shed and driveway cubby thing.
L got her first touch of a sun burn on her left shoulder but she tanned up a bit too (gets that from daddy).
J had a blast, he really is the outdoor type (even if he is screaming his head off half the time).
C took his girlfriend to the movies, Clash of the Titans (great movie btw).
A is back on his feet, skating a little here & there, swears there's no pain anymore & he doesn't need a wrap or the removable cast (big though boy, huh).

Corn beef

via the man

1 can corn beef
(red can with the key to turn it open, not corn beef hash stuff)
1 8ox can tomato sauce
1 cup/can corn
sprinkle sprinkle Adobo
1 pk Sazon
1 tbs Reciato
Rice
&/or Fries

Start your rice &/or fries

In pan w/ lid start heating up corn beef on med/high
add in all other ingredients
mix mix mix
drop to low, cover
once rice &/or fries are done serve over rice add fries on top

meal planning GF dinners.......

..........& no one seems to notice.
I'm Gluten Free all the time, the hubby & kids are not.
So to sit & eat together for dinner I choose to make the whole meal GF.
I was doing two dinners off the same meat/veggie but that was getting old & time consuming.
Here's my way of planning out dinners so that no one seems to notice & there's no complaints.
I rotate out the main item in this order
-GF Pasta
-Salad
-Potato
-Rice
So the next 8 days look like this
-tomato, zucchini, mozzarella over pasta
-chicken caesar salad
-steak, broccoli & baked potato
-corn beef & corn over rice
-homemade tomato sauce over spaghetti
-steak um salad
-pork chops with potato & onions
-bulgogi over rice
I try to mix up the type of food when planning, we are such a mixture in this house that I try to get alittle bit of everything in our meals, plus we all enjoy food way to much & I'm really lucky not to have picky eaters.
Looking above you see Italian, Asian, American, Puerto Rican.
The plus side too is that all ingredients are in the fridge/pantry already so no more shopping to accomplish this.

1 down

J's last day of PreK was yesterday.
He did super great this year!
The celebration was cute, they sang songs & got diplomas and my lovely son wants to be "Ninja Guiden" when he grows up & "kill bad guys with his swords on his back". Can you say way to many video games!!!
I didn't get any pics of him and his teachers, he's way to shy for that but he was amazing while singing, he didn't back away or stop from shyness, he fully embraced that they were performing for us. He kept smiling at me & waving.
We got a bucket of goodies from the teachers with outdoor fun stuff and a study packet for this summer with practice sheets & books to read.
We'll start homework time today after lunch.

Pics to come.

silent radar

It's amazing to me how kids can sense when hubby is up & gone.
I mean I barely budge half the time, 430 is way to early for me.
Hubby can hit snooze 4 times, shave, dress, drink water, but on his big ol boots and walk out the door, nobody hears a thing........
Then bang silent 'daddy's gone' radar kicks in
5-530 L is up trying to get in my bed, 6-630 J is up trying to get in my bed.
Now if it's a Saturday, they don't do this, why? Because hubby is still home.

cutting tv time

So you see we are addicted to TV, yes, we, all of us.

I know growing up I used it as my company and friend, being an only child may have been the reason.

My kids seem to have it on just because, maybe because I did when they were younger.

~C is the exception now. As a little one we didn't have cable so he'd watch movies, after movie after movie, but he couldn't sleep if it was on so we had to be careful there.
~A turns it on instantly when he wakes up, he has it on mute even as he's on the comp. or doing homework, if him & I do something together, it's watch a movie.
~J said to me today "but I love the TV mom", "this is why it needs to be cut down in time hun".
He likes to watch it, stare at it, talk to it, but then if it's not on something for him he goes crazy.
~L likes the TV, she asks for specific things to watch, shes still young enough to watch good educational shows.

Hubby is a whole nether story, I think he uses it as company & to zone us all out, but hes practically deaf & blind so its too loud & hes way to close to it. He can not fall asleep without it on & if he's trying to watch something on the couch then its a guarantee he'll fall asleep & miss it.

So our new weekday goal is no more than 2hrs M-F per person.
C should be fine
A needs to be more picky when he turns it on
J will learn to be more show specific
L just needs to pick and stick
Hubby pretty much needs to wait till after dinner & pick wisely
Me, well I'm good during the day, I just watch TV when everyone is asleep anyways (hehe)

a change.... again

I'm going to quit my job~kinda sort.
I'm off till the middle of July and then I'll make the final decision.
We all talked yesterday and all want me home.
(Do you guys love me that much?)
I've been doing weekends since the Fall of '09, then Sundays only when hubby left, now with surgery coming in 10 days & A in a semi cast & crutches, I guess it's best to be here.
I just can't find a justified reason to quit.
Hummm, maybe after 6 weeks of not working and being home we will know more later on.
If I do go back in July it will be weekends & Holidays again.
The money is nice, but losing weekends with the family sucks.
We will see.

7 Layer Dip

This always goes well over here & for parties.
I call it 7 layer but of course it can have more or less.
Great with chips & then with the leftovers everyone here makes burritos.
The dip is gluten free and if you use corn chips the meal can be too.

9x13 glass dish

1 pk/tube Ground beef/turkey/chicken
1 big can Refried Beans
1 tub Sour Cream
Lettuce
1 bag Shredded Cheese
2 Avocados
1 Onion
1 Tomato
handful of Olives (your choice)

~Start to brown up your meat with your favorite seasonings (I do recaito, sofrito, sazon, adobo)
add in diced up Onion if you'd like
~Warm up your beans
as both are cooking
~Shred your lettuce, dice your onions, dice your tomato, chop your olives, slice avocados
When meat is done pour and spread into bottom of dish,
spread beans on top,
spread out sour cream,
spread out sliced avocado,
layer on lettuce,
sprinkle on cheese,
top off with onion, tomato, olives

Enjoy!!!!

06/04....

J had his first round go on his dental work,
he's such a tropper he did great.
C is at his girlfriends house missing dinner,
which was 7 layer dip and home made chips.
A calls in the middle of eating to say he hurt his ankle again,
it looks bad, I guess I'm off to the ER.
L, well shes good to go today,
she had a few hours alone with daddy.

I know, not to much of an exciting post, but it's 30 days 30 post and I will do it even if it's just to state our average day.

Yummy Chicken Wings....

....with Tostones & Spring Mix salad.
Slowly I'm getting everyone to eat Gluten Free with me.
I do it all the time, they do it without knowing it half the time.

So tonight's dinner was great, simple & a hit.

~Chicken Wings~

Frozen raw unseasoned chicken wings/pieces
defrost & bake at 350 till golden

Heat oil then fry for a bit to get them crunchy

sauce 1 (for us who like it hot)
Franks hot sauce add butter, garlic powder, a few drops of lemon juice
mix and toss wings in
sauce 2 (for those who don't like it hot)
A bit of Edens organic soy sauce, rice sprinkles, sesame oil, minced dried onions, garlic powder, rice seasoning

~Tostones~

2 Plantains peeled and cut into even amount ( I do 6 pieces per )
to cook- roll them around in oil till slightly golden, drain, squish, refry them again till golden
mix and toss wings in

Sauce to dip these in
mayo, ketchup, garlic powder, vinegar

~Spring Mix~

is as is, store bought.

Zoo Pictures

June....

Already!

Really!

Where did the last 5 months go?

Well lets see,

3 Birthdays down ~ 3 more to go.

Mothers Day done ~ Fathers Day coming

Our actual (we eloped-sshhh) wedding day passed it ~

our Anniversary (big wedding we had) in 27 days

New Years Day,Valentines Day,Easter

& Memorial Day celebrated~

Independence Day,Labor Day,Halloween,Thanksgiving

& Christmas on the way

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

J's class had their last field trip Thursday.

The weather held off perfectly,

in between the 5 days of constant rain we didn't get 1 drop the whole time we were there.

It's a nice little Zoo.

The best part for me~I could see the Ocean peaking through the trees from the walking trail.

The day before our trip there the Tiger had 2 babies, we could see her resting under the trees but not the babies.

The Monkeys gave us a show for a few minutes.

We even got a pic of the white one.

The Porcupines where huge!

I've never seen them old & full grown I guess,

just the random straggler by the road and those are still pretty small.

We saw Penguins & Polar bears of course.
And Otters! Yes, Sea Otters like in Monterey Bay. They were so cute floating around, IMO I think they needed more kelp/seaweed in their habitat but what can I do?

I know there's way more but the pics will show a few things & of course J & L will get a scrapbook page of the trip.

Pics to come soon.