Gone With The Flu.

I'm feeling very un-healthy as of late. Last week I spent in what I thought was pure misery, until early Sunday morning at 2am I woke up with this nasty stomach flu. I won't go into detail, but it creates an excess of stomach acid, and my body was making sure it wasn't staying in my system. Today, I'm finally starting to feel a bit better, minus the awful headache. I drank gaterade and ate some bread, and so far am doing OK. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow the painter comes, and this weekend we hook up all the lights and do the floor next week. I'm looking forward to the Superbowl this year only because of all the yummy food my mom and I are going to make. Plus, not eating for 2 days almost everything is sounding super delicious. But I'm a bit scared to eat. :)

Here are the paint colors, the one is a green color for the accent wall and the other is tan. I'm sooo excited. :D

Ten

Pounds lost so far! WooHoo! I started eating off a saucer before Christmas, and so far its working! Other changes I've made:
1. Less coffee, more tea. This only because I have to add cream and sugar to my coffee. :) I could never completely give it up. Ok, I probably COULD, I just choose not to. :D
2. No eating after 6pm unless its air popper pop corn.
3. Almost cut out Pop. I love a good ice cold Coke once in a while, so Im sticking to that. :)
I've kept with cooking the same meals as I always did, just eating off the smaller plate = smaller portions. More of a lifestyle change than a diet. :) I have a long way to go, but it was pointed out to me by an old friend, to celebrate even 1 lb lost, so I am! :D


I have to share this picture I found while looking thru my computer. Its from this last Christmas. I crack up at Silas. He is such a ham! That's his CHEESE face. :)

Today is friday, which always makes me happy. But also because, Gold Rush is on tonight, and that is mine and Siara's favorite! We always sit down with a bowl of popcorn and watch, one of my favorite Friday traditions. :) Everyone have a great weekend!

Dentist

Yesterday included a trip to the dentist for me for a cleaning. I found out I have the start of a cavity. :*( But Im going next week to get that taken care of. I was laying in the chair, and the Hygienist was just chatting away with me, and of course I couldn't really respond. I was laughing to myself thinking, how can I respond to these questions when you have this poker in my mouth scraping my teeth?! Anyway, we were (she was) talking about kids, and how she has two boys who are 11 and 8. She misses them being the age my kids are, and told me how looking back there are two things she wished would have been different.
1. She would have played cars. She explained to me that she was always looking for a plot to the game, and never just pushed the cars around like the boys wanted. Now she wants to play cars, and they dont. :)
2. Her bathroom could have waited. She explained that too many times she set the kids down to play among themselves while she cleaned the toilet, kitchen, or whatever. When is reality, she wishes she would have been sitting down to play with them; the bathroom could have waited until nap time and did she really need to have such a clean house? She had kids, and if someone came into her home and thought it was a disaster because her children had some toys laying around, she says 'Get with it!' haha.
She was great. I was thinking about my post yesterday when she was talking. I dont want to look back at my kids childhood and say, Man..I should have played cars. Im going to enjoy the moment Im in, not worry so much about this, that, or if Im doing a good job; since we all know, I wont get these moments back. I need to give myself a break too, cut myself some slack it seems. :)

Anyways, I better get back to work. The painter is coming out tomorrow to look at the new family room and decide on paints, Im so excited that we are getting close enough to PAINT! AHH! This weekend will be busy, my Mother in Law is hosting a Pampered Chef party and on Sunday its my cousins Toddler Shower. They are adopting a little boy from Korea, I cant wait for him to get here! He was supposed to come last year, but they ran out of visas, so he should be coming any day now, they will receive 5 days notice before they go meet him. He will be 2 in July. I pray that the transition will be as smooth as possible for them.

Adios, back to work!

Success

..The cookies, that is! Sean said they were perfect!! :) Whatever this is Im battling has me very tired. I will get spurts of energy, get some things done, then I have to sit down and rest or I start to feel even worse.

You know, Im also having this internal battle with parenting/my kids. Let me start by saying this, my son..is something else. Every time I look at him, I smile. Even when he has dumped out ALL his blocks after I just picked up his bedroom, or emptied my whole purse..he always has this look on his face that I just cant explain, but it literally breaks my heart(in a good way) everytime. He is talking a lot now, smooching with big puckered lips, and just so smart that I cant stand it. Haha. Then I have my daughter, who talks like she is 15. This is not an exaggeration. She will hold a conversation with you like its no big deal, it cracks me up the things she remembers and does/says. She breaks my heart in a completely different way. I was scared of this when we found out we were pregnant again. How could I love another like I loved her? Well, easy!! Thats why Im positive a third baby would bring a whole new element to our lives. But..how on earth can my heart handle such a thing?! I would have to just get used to being a puddle of emotions all the time. ;-)  Anyways, back to my internal battle..every once and a while, I have this feeling of guilt. Especially when I see other Mom's and things there doing with their kids, am I doing a good job? Should I be doing more with my kids? Im sure this is a typical feeling of a parent..maybe? The way they are turning out, I feel Im doing just fine. :) We got a cookie for Silas at Walmart and he told the lady 'Det Doo' which is how he says Thank You. And a lady behind us sneezed and he said 'Bless you!' Besides when he says, Luh Youu....I absolutely love when he says Bless You. Nothing sweeter out of a babies mouth.
I dont really know where Im going with this, and now that I look at the clock its time to get Siara ready for Pre-School. Maybe I'll add onto this later. :)

Favorite Blog

Ok, I do have a favorite right now and its Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. I LOVE her recipes, although I dont make them ALL the time, since she is a fan of butter ;-) But there is a part of her blog called The Tasty Kitchen, where people go and share recipes. Kind of like on Pinterest, the only problem is, between the two Im being bombarded with all the recipes I want to make! I will share a few of them with you;

Perfect Iced Coffee
Steakhouse Pizza
Italian Chicken Soup
Crab Wontons

One thing Im so excited about having once the garage project done, is a pantry. I have always wanted to be able to buy ingredients in bulk and have a place to store them. We have an idea of how we want our Pantry to look, and just the basic white shelving is what were aiming for. I like this look I found on Pinterest,

Source: thehouseofsmiths.com via Stacy Lyn on Pinterest

So anyway, I better get moving, Im still not feeling 100% but the antibiotics are helping a lot. Im taking Siara to the Dr today to have her checked out. She is complaining of one of her ear's hurting, and she feels like she is going to throw up again. :( I plan to make these cookies today for Sean, I'll let you know the results. :)

Source: kelseysappleaday.blogspot.com via Stacy Lyn on Pinterest

SnowMG as they say..

We got all this pretty snow, and I have either strep throat or mono (waiting for the test results) so I'm too sick to even go out and play.  :( Boo. But now that its nasty ice, I'm glad I'm stuck inside. :) I just pray for my Hubby and his safety while driving today. The kids and Sean got a 24 hour flu bug, that was not fun. Running between each kid with a bowl, trying to catch puke, while I feel like my bones are rubbing against eachother they ache so bad..very trying time as Mama Bear. But I was able to get to the Dr today for antibiotics, so Im looking forward to feeling better soon. :) thankful now for WWF to keep me entertained while I'm held up on the couch.

The garage is coming along well, sheetrock is up, after the inspector checks the screws we can mud and tape, then paint!! After that we will start the flooring. I'm just so excited to have a pantry and my own laundry room. I love Pinterest, I'm getting such great organizational tips from the site, I'm excited to use them. :)

Here are some random pics from the week, I'm feeling like a nap for now.

Remodel

 The Garage is enclosed, and my window is in!

 Primered, and ready for Trim Boards and Paint! (My window is looking small in these pictures, but really its a perfect fit.)

 The wall to my laundry room! So excited to have a laundry room!

Another view of the wall with the pocket door.

Its going great so far! Getting a lot more accomplished then I thought we would by now. Today we do some Electrical work. Both my Grandpa and Uncle are electricians, but I still pray everything goes ok and no one gets a shock. :) Im so excited about this project!! Even though I feel like we're constantly busy and other things in my house are being neglected, like laundry(I managed to start a load this morning, yippee!) its going very smoothly! Ill keep updating as we go!

Sick Hubby.

Well, the better half is home sick with a fever today. Which, he rarely gets sick, so this probably wont be good. :(

Im sure, if you watch the news, you heard about the tragedy on Mt Rainier. This brings such a sadness to my heart. The only thing that makes me feel better is knowing she is in Heaven.
I was hunting near Mt Rainier last month and saw Ranger Anderson when we stopped for breakfast at the Copper Creek. I went to school and partly studied being a Park Ranger, so when I saw her, I thought to myself, 'That could be me, if I finish school!' We only crossed paths for mere moments, but she had a big beautiful smile on her face, and just bursted with a happiness that anyone around her could feel. Such a tragedy, and I feel so sorry that her little girls wont get to grow up with their Mother and her husband is without his Wife. I pray for this family. There is a candle light vigil this Sunday, and with how close this little community is, Im sure it will be packed.

Anyway, Im going to change the subject before I get too sad. I decided while I was making the Elk stew/soup that blogging about food is something I would like to do more of. Im slowly building my collection of awesome Kitchen tools and appliances, and I sure love to cook, so why not include some of my creations! I made up my own Alfredo sauce recipe, so when I make that this weekend I will make sure to blog about it, and include my recipe. But when I do, please..don't ask about the calories! Haha, it is NOT a diet friendly dish. ;-)
As of lately, I have been eating off a saucer, to help control my portions, so far it is working great at helping in my weight loss efforts. I spoke with a nutritionist a while back, and she said I was eating fine, just probably too much. Plus, I don't really want to be cooking different meals for my family, so I just make what I usually do, and eat it off the smaller plate. So, maybe if you try my Alfredo recipe, you can do the same, or use fat-free cheeses and what-not, I just figure, If Im going to indulge, better just do it!

Well, I better get off the computer and take care of my sickling. I really do love the Blogger app. I did my whole post about the stew from my phone, I also have the feature where I can talk and it types it for me..perfect for when Im cooking!

Whats for Dinner?

Elk...Stew? I decided to go off on my own and try creating something different for dinner. I went along the lines of a stew, but added a couple other things I have never had in a stew before. Although, I'm sure there are recipes out there that call for these simple ingredients I added.

Firstly, my brother in law gave me a 50 dollar target gift card for Christmas, with it I bought myself an enamel coated dutch oven. I'm in love.

Back to the stew,
I started in my pan with 2 tablespoons of oil. I then added my stew meat and browned it. Then I added two cups of beef broth, followed by chopped carrots, celery, onions and diced mushrooms. I set my burner on low and let it simmer. About an hour later I added a can of diced tomatoes and a packet of beefy onion soup mix by lipton. I let it simmer for another hour before adding a small can of tomato paste and a tablespoon of chopped garlic. About an hour before I wanted to eat dinner I added some gold potatoes and a splash or two of milk, once those were done in time to eat. I ate mine with a small dollop of sour cream stirred in, Siara had hers with gold fish crackers. :) Sean isn't home yet so will see what he thinks, its nothing to spectacular but it was a nice change from your regular beef stew, Well besides the fact that I used elk meat. ;) I'm sure it would taste the same with beef as they don't actually have too much of a taste difference.