Snowflake: day 13

Whatcha making there Snowflake?

Snowflake: day 12

Look like she was in Lylas jewelry.
Watching from a bit higher today.

Snowflake: day 11

Silly!
She wants to help hang candy canes on the tree too.

Snowflake: day 10

Sitting on the bluray with a friend watching tv

Snowflake: day 9

Poor thing wasn't feeling to well.
Yesterday there was an accident, while the note was being retrieved by Lyla Snowflake slightly fell, hitting her face.
It was an accident and a super close call.

Snowflake: day 8

Seems a little reminder was needed

Snowflake: day 7

Well hey, can't be to upset she's gotten into my things, she's a crafty one, now we know

Snowflake: day 6

Snowflake seems to be making her way around the living room and the holiday decorations.

Snowflake: day 5

Oh my! Be careful not to fall.

Snowflake: day 4

I wonder who will find her first today

Snowflake: day 3

Silly girl.
Lyla had a good giggle when she found her.

Snowflake: day 2

We found her- up on the kitchen window sill.

Snowflake: our elf

Today we were gifted.
Upon awaking we found 2 new (candy free) advent calendars, a book and a note.
To our surprise they were from an Elf!
We went on the hunt and found Her, on top of the china cabinet.
Isn't she pretty.
We have named her Snowflake.

Day 3 of P90X

Yes you read that right, P90X. I'm going to do this! I'm so stinking sore right now, things hurt I never knew I had. I will do this! Squating to pick up shoes is hurting, walking up the stairs is hurting, getting dressed is hurting. I can do this! The idea that I can look good in a bikini (at 33 w/4 kids) in 3 months is totally awesome.

movin' and groovin'

...right along you can say.

Fridays are nice down days here in the house. The 3 boys head out to school and L stays home with me, we usually hang around in our pj's and sport bed head all day :P
Today we got up and hit the bank, picked up a few things for the Mr. went and visited long enough for him and L to watch a movie together while I thumbed through a new quilt book.
Home to cook dinner, J to BBall practice, driven by a neighbor, such a life saver. Now I've been here on the comp. for the last few hours.

Chuggin' chuggin' chuggin' right along......

6 weeks ago.....

The Hubby was in a horrid car accident. He is alive and well and will recover over time.
(Who knew this would be hard to write out? I have it all written in my head.)
The first weekend of March my parents were flying in for a 4 day weekend, my mom has been overseas for 18 months already and my dad is down South. It has been a long time since we have seen them. Being an only child with a small immediate family it's hard sometimes. (I tease and say that's why I had 4 kids- so they wouldn't have to ever be alone- they would always have their siblings). They flew in early afternoon Thursday, we shopped for dinner and went about as usual got the kids from school etc. Hubby was on 24hr duty so we knew he'd need to sleep Friday so L and I got ready and planned on heading to the hotel after he got home about 10. I'm normally a dinner cook, occasionally pancakes on the weekends, I don't cook breakfast or set up a meal at an odd time unless asked. Friday morning as I was getting ready, for some odd reason I made the hubby a plate about 9:45. Set it all out with cutlery and a glass. Finished getting ready. 10 rolls around and I start to wonder 'wow he's not home, no call yet either to say he'd be late'. I call, leave him a message that his plate was ready and L and I were leaving, we'd all meet up about 3 for when the kids would get home.
'hum, odd' was what I keep thinking. We get to the hotel, start talking about lunch and my phone rings. It was so unreal. We head to the ER, only to pass an accident scene. I'm driving and can see everything, I literally had to stop, mom tried saying it wasn't the Mr's car but I knew it was. It was gone, destroyed, totalled, cut apart.
From then on Friday around 11:30 was just a mess of Dr's, Hospitals, Xrays, nurses, everything medically related.
Hubby had ribs right side 3-9 broken, right hip broken w/ femur damage, left foot/ankle crushed.
They had to cut him out of the car, it was 2 hrs from time of accident until phone call to me.
He was in Seattle, a few hours away up with the best hip surgeon around.
He underwent 3 surgeries in the next week. 17 days in the Trauma Center.
The past month he's been in Olympia in a Skilled Nursing Facility. He's able to sit up now, slide to a potty chair, slide to a special wheelchair. He's currently still restricted to no lower limb pressure. His hip healing is going nicely, 54 staples removed. His left foot is casted with internal and external hardware attached.
It's a double whammy though for PT, since its both sides its a bit tricky for them to start (when they get the go to) on his right side strength building since he can't get the left side down and vise versa.

There's way more as a filler in the days between, but we don't need to hear how I almost go crazy now do we :P
We do have a wonderful Community that provided dinners for a couple weeks, built us a ramp and passed on a Hospital bed to us.

We are here- surviving- we will make it through this!

*WARNING GRAPHIC PICTURE*




Front of car



All shaved up one night that I got to stay over



So Gross! his foot after 4 weeks



On his first outing (being the Easter Bunny for the kids)

~Tasty Tuesday~ Sausage Soup

This one is so simple and so versitle,

you can clean out the fridge or pantry and it still taste so good each & every time.

Base-

Package of your favorite Sausage (I use italian or sage or whats on sale)

1/2 onion diced

2 garlic cloves diced

Broth (I use chicken but beef or veggie can work too)

Cooking-

Start by browing up the sausage,onion,garlic in the bottom of your pot

add in broth/cubes & water

Thats the basics of this soup,

from here on out its up to you, below I'm showing you tonights version, I'll also list a few that went very well in our house.

Tonight I added in a can of spinach (fresh or frozen works great too), a can of tomato sause and a small bag of shells

Tried & true versions:

Mushrooms (fresh or canned)

Mushroom & Zuchini

Spinach (fresh, frozen, canned)

Zuchini , tomato, motzarella cheese (tossed in when served)

Bell pepper trio (fresh or frozen)

add rice or pasta to any of theses

Of course this can be made Primal, GF, Low Carb, DF, Egg Free

51-365 my baby turned 5!

Lyla-

You are:

smart, funny, energetic, loving, kind, playful, sweet, picky.

You now:

dress on your own, brush your teeth, brush your hair, put on your shoes, make your own pb&j's, fall asleep w/o a fight in your own bed

You love:

prek, fresh beat band, puzzles, coloring/crafts

You eat:

motza balls, pickles, cheetos, quesadillas, bread, butter, salt, sausage

Valentines Gift for the Hubby '12

This year for the husband I bought him a recliner.

Well to help it be more of a Valentines Gift I thought of making it a pillow.
(pillow case actually)

Our colors throughout the house are earth tones with a touch of purple thrown in for me (my "make me smile" color)

I took This Quilted Pillow and tweaked the measurements to fit a standard pillow.


I elongated the sides by doubling them as I went along.
I sandwiched the top and stitched it down.
The back is one solid piece.




Not only am I not good math to figure out the measurements first- I was on a new to me machine, with 2 new feet- I received the 1/4 in foot and the walking foot this weekend soooooo here I was trying them all out on a gift.


Luckily for me the hubby is out of town until the 22nd so I had a few extra days to squeeze the pillow in :)

Valentines '12 & 45-365

My love sent me a little something

45 - 365

3 outta 5 of my Valentines today after school

29-365

Scrappy WIP is going........ backwards! Yes backwards. None of my tall rows lined up right with my short rows :/ so here I am seeing the rainbow way to much as I unstitch each row one by one. I've figured piecing it back together in groups of 4 - tall tall short short. As you can see on the left things are lining up much better this way. I did find the perfect fabric in my stash to use as the backing.

28-365

Oh thy lovely gas fireplace-
how pretty you are to thee-
But so incredibly useless if you dont heat us!
So I've covered you up.
P.S. your a gas hog too!

27-365

Time to clean the damage from last weeks storm,
can you believe it- theres actually sun shinning today,
oh and its a lovely 38degrees out,
woohoo how long 'til I'm purple?

26-365

and.....
he packs for YTC,
this time around in just 30 short days he misses 3 Birthdays & Valentines

25-365

Work in progress & Prison Break

Need I say more?

24-365

No electric-AGAIN!

23-365

Coffee Hun?


I followed along in January's Monthly Challenge over on I don't have a fabric problem....

Here's my coffee cozy :)

the last 5 days

So we awake Wednesday to this beautiful snow :)

Luke loved it too!

We then awoke on Thursday to no power.

We got to make coffee the super fun way ;)

Then hey what beats breakfast on the grill. Potatoes, sausage & eggs cooked right there in one pot on one burner.

We stayed home most of Thursday, we decided to head out but after driving around we realize everyone was w/o power too. We found one resturant open anf had a nice warm dinner. We did sleep nat home and tried to function on Friday but we started to get cold quick, the house was losing heat pretty fast. At about noon it was 47 inside. Thankfully hubby had a friend who had a hotel in a nearby city and invited us over. We packed up and headed out, the trees were down everywhere, power lines were hanging, the back roads to base were closed. After 2 hours we finally made it (normally a 45-60 min drive). Get to the hotel just to find out they are w/o power too. We made do, cooked up chicken gumbo & rice on the camping stove. Watched a movie on the laptop and hit the beds early. Saturday hubby got called in- since they didnt work all week- I headed to the house, let the dogs out, cleaned out the freezers since they were defrosted, took a shower, got the proprane filled, feed the kids lunch. We headed out to stay the night in Lacey. Here it is Sunday, I get home first thing to find lights on! say what? yep power is restored. I set up the heater, cleaned up a bit, went grocery shopping and we are home. In our nice warm beds, watching netflix, uploading a few pics, well I'm still up- all are asleep and snoring away.

I will need to call the landlord, theres tree branches all over the roof and in the gutters....

22-365

How fun!
I've never seen anything like this before.

Finally got power back today, heated up the house, let the dogs out, headed back into town to get gas & the kids.
This is what I see as I'm pumping gas :P

21-365

Sunshine & Blue skies
enjoyed if only for a minute

20-365

Here is only 1 tree down out of the hundres that froze and split and killed power in 2 counties

19-365 ~Thankful Thursday~

So So Very Thankful for my Propane Grill on this freezing cold no power Thursday

18-365

8in. fell last night.
Well at least that's what's on my car.

17-365 & ~Tasty Tuesday~ all in one

Beef & 3 Bean Chili !



So perfect for this freezing snowy day.









Quick and easy I tell you.

Package of Chili seasoning
1 Onion-chopped
a couple Garlic Cloves-chopped
1 small can Tomato Sauce
1 regular can Tomatoes (here I used fire roasted)
1 can RoTel Tomatoes & Chiles

1 package Lean Ground Beef

I cook my own beans- black, kidney, red
I used 5 laddles worth-juice included
or of course canned works too

1 can black
1 can kidney
1 can red or pink

In my crockpot I heat up the beef, onions, garlic, seasoning.

Then just add in all the canned items plus 1 cup water.

Simmer 6 hours.

Serve with Fritos, shredded cheese, sour cream, jalapenos.........




Now to be gluten free just check your seasoning package and select a different one if needed, obviously to be dairy free leave off those select toppings, slightly lowcarb/primal due to the beans you could always eliminate those and of course the Fritos too