Firsts – Page 3 – xangelle.com

2 Stitches

As if we didn’t have enough drama in our lives right now, Siah decided to shake things up a little last night.

Jon, Jeremy and Siah were down in the basement playing a video game. Siah was sitting on the arm rest of our futon and he unbalanced himself and fell forward hitting his head on the corner of a wooden toy box.

Breakfast

Mom, the girls, Judah and I were up in the kitchen and heard the thunk. It was that loud. Then we heard Jon yell and then we heard Siah crying and it was “one of those cries.”

I raced downstairs and met Jon at the bottom of the stairs. He handed Siah off to me and there was blood everywhere. I could see that his head was split open in between his eyes. We came up stairs and got a rag to try to stop the blood. It was apparent that he’s need stitches.

First Bite

We hoped that we could make it to the local clinic that did Jeremy’s stitches as we’ve talked with them about our challenges of dealing with germs and sickness due to Angelica’s suppressed immune system, BUT….it was 7:30pm and they were closed at 8pm and they were already over booked for the day and were not even answering their phone.

And so Jon headed to the ER.

The plan was for Jon to wear a mask into the ER and explain the situation and see how they could work with us to get Siah the care that he needed while attempting to keep us as germ free as possible.

The staff at Langley Hospital were amazing.

Geli’s Delicious Cinnamon Buns

They didn’t have any open rooms at the time, but they planned to get a room emptied and clean out and to bring Jon and Siah in and straight back to the closed room as soon as possible. They gave Jon a small mask for Siah to wear in and out and in the waiting time, they stayed in the van to minimize the possibility of picking anything up from other ill people.

They waited in the van and the triage nurse came out to the van to assess Siah and yup….he needed stitches.

It took a few hours, and in the mean time, Siah fell asleep.

See Food

When the room was finally ready, Jon carried the sleeping Siah in. He said that they got quite a few looks, as he’d been in and out with his mask on and now they were carrying a limp child in with a mask on….can you imagine that others in the waiting room must have been wondering what was wrong with this child that they had to wear masks????

Jon tried to wake Siah up to explain what was about to happen, but he had tired himself out so badly with his initial screaming when it happened that he was NOT waking up. He was in that drowsy state where you’re not really awake but not really asleep. They finally wrapped him like a burrito to keep him from being able to move his arms and the Dr checked to see that Jon was okay with what was going to happen and once he was sure that Jon wasn’t going to flip out….they started.

They had already put on a fast acting numbing cream and they started injecting the freezing and that’s when Siah woke up for real. So in his mind, probably, he went to sleep and was woken up to some dude poking his head with a needle. AWESOME! Jon said he screamed until he wasn’t breathing. Brutal! The Doctor only put in two stitches because he figured that was about all that Siah could handle and even though he was being quick, it was still pretty traumatic.

He told Jon that the cut was extremely straight and that it should heal amazingly because it was such a precise cut.

2 Stitches

They masked up again and came home. Siah settled down pretty quickly once Jon was able to hold him and was almost asleep by the time they reached the van.

They got home before 11pm….not bad considering the waits in ER’s now a days.

He went to bed right away and slept through until 6am when he crawled into bed with us.

This morning he seems to be doing okay and so we are just gonna take it easy today. Geli’s doing pretty good this morning too. We were attempting to adjust her meds schedule around so that we were not having to wake up at 3am to give her a dose, but that meant that she might be a little barfy this morning. She did feel a bit off and dry heaved for about 45 minutes off and on until the meds finally kicked in. Her and Siah are back downstairs in the basement this morning. She is teaching Josiah how to play the original NES Nintendo Super Mario Brother’s game. He’s thrilled and she’s distracted and it’s good.

This is now the 4th of our 5 kids that have gotten stitches in their head…..when she was about 8 years old, Geli wacked her head open on a floor heater and needed 3 stitches. When Xani was about 10, her cousin went all vmapire on her and tried to take a bite out her head while they were jumping on a trampoline and she needed 3 stitches. A few weeks ago, Jeremy got 3 stitches in his chin and now Josiah has had 2 stitches in between his eyes…..GAH!

I’m really hoping and praying that Judah stays safe and protected.

Do you have any cool stories about “that time you got stitches” or your kids……Please share!

Firsts and Traditions Carried On

It’s been a tradition since April 4th, 1997.

That is the day that Angelica was born and when Jon gave Geli her first bath.

Some wise man talked to Jon about giving the babies their baths as it was a way that “he” could bond with his babies..ya know, seeing as he didn’t have boobs and wasn’t able to bond with them the same way that I could…..

And so, he jumped right in there and he did most, if not all of the baths for our kid when they were babies…..I find the baths to be a bit scarey as the babies are a bit like rubbery wet noodles……

This whole situation has required some give and take on our part and while we’ve been separated as a family for almost month…..some things are too important and can have the extra effort given to make them happen.

And so,getting back to the whole first bath business….

I had to beat the nurses at BC Women’s Hospital back with a stick as they kept offering to get a bath for me to bathe Judah in and I wanted to give Jon the opportunity to give Judah his first bath. (I didn’t really have to beat them off, but they did offer a bath a few times and I very politely declined.)

This last Thursday, on Judah’s 2 week birthday we were at home all together and we whipped out the baby bath and Jon was able to carry on the tradition……HOOOOOORAY!

Judah’s a pretty chilled out little dude and I wondered how he was going to handle his first bath. All of our kids have had different reactions to the bath. Some loving it, some hating it, some screaming the entire time and some just going to sleep in the middle of the bath.

Judah just stayed pretty true to his nature and just laid there all relaxed while Jon bathed him. No screaming, no flailing, no startling, not bothered at all, one bit……

It was a bit of a family affair. I think that if Jeremy had been able to fit that he would have jumped into the bath with the baby. All of our kids are quite the water bugs now and if Judah’s first bath is any indication – he seems like he’ll fit in with the rest of the family quite nicely.

I’m just glad that we were able to carry on this little tradition. It’s not that big of a deal, but sometimes it’s the little things that make a difference. I know that Jon was happy that we were able to make this “first” happen.

The Finished Crib Set

Well, after a lot of cutting and piecing and sewing and stitch ripping and a few quick “on the fly” adjustments because I miscalculated………the crib set is COMPLETED.

I sewed the very last piece of thread on the drive home from church on Sunday and I have to admit….it felt pretty good.

I actually made a crib sheet (still need to make one more), bumper pads and a quilt all without an official pattern and I think that it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself.

I guess that biggest thing is that I actually like it. I do see things that I could have done differently or if I were doing again, that I’d do better, but for my first ever attempt at anything like this….I’m pretty proud of what I’ve accomplished.

I wrote a few different patterns for the quilt and finally settled on one that I figured that I liked. it wasn’t too busy and I didn’t figure that it’d be too difficult to cut and piece and actually “do”.

I cut out all the pieces of fabric based on the sizes that I had calculated in my pattern and tried to figure out at the same time where they were all going, based on how much of the fabric I had and what looked the best sitting next to each other.

Here is my attempt to puzzle all the pieces together before attempting to sew them….

Once I actually started to sew the pieces together I realized that I had miscalculated by 4 inches…..that’s a pretty big miscalculation AND…..I didn’t have enough fabric left over to re-cut the pieces that I had messed up on and so…then I had to figure out how I was going to “fix” it and continue on.

Here is the finished top piece and you can see where I had to add additional 2 inch pieces in on the 3rd and 4th lengths and in order to make the quilt look “intentional” I also then had to reduce 2 of the outside panels that I had NOT miscalculated on…oh the joy…..oh the fun!

I then stopped working on the quilt and started working on the bumper pads. I was initially going to just make them completely out of the dark paw print material, (I bought 2 meters of the yellow dot, and 2 meters of the dark brown and a fat quarter of each of the other prints. I could have just gone and bought some more, BUT…it was almost like a challenge to try to use up the remaining fabric that I had left over and still come up with something that I liked while not HAVING to buy any more fabric……..and aside from wanting to buy one more meter of the yellow dot to make another crib sheet – I have been able to do exactly that.) I didn’t have enough fabric to go ahead and do that, but I could piece some pieces together and hopefully make it work.

I’ll admit, that I created WAY MORE work for myself than was necessary but I was able to puzzle enough pieces together without them looking completely ridiculous and I didn’t have to buy any more fabric (for this project) AND…….even better…..The bumper pads fit PERFECTLY!

Here is a side view and we are still going to paint the crib and to figure out a way to tie the end ties onto the head and foot boards to keep them from falling down….

Here is Jon holding up the completed quilt…

and here is a partial view of the back side of the quilt……

My mom came and helped me to “quilt” the blanket and we used our little man’s name and also put 3 stars in the 2 opposing corners……It looks AMAZING, but you’ll have to wait until the big day to find out what our little man’s name is going to be….

There are a few extra pictures in the set that you can check out if you so desire.

I’m just happy that it all worked out and that it’s ONE MORE THING that I can cross off my list.

Crossing Things Off My List

I have a list written down somewhere. Actually I have a few lists written down in a few different places, and well….can I find any of them right now…..NOPE!

I’m usually super organized and yet I’ve been feeling SO SCATTERED recently.

I think I’ve got too many things on my plate right now and yet…..that’s a post for another day and another time.

We’ve bought a crib set for each of our other kids. I figured that at the very least, I could save and one day pass on the comforter to each kid and that each child was unique and deserved something of their own….With each child I’ve had a harder and harder time choosing something that I really liked that wasn’t too over the top, gaudy or just down right ugly.

I did find a cute set for Siah and yet I wanted something different for this little one.

I decided to buy some fabric and to make some co-ordinating bedding and covers for this baby.

I’m not the worlds most amazing seamstress. My mother can make anything, even without a pattern, (She sewed my sister’s wedding dress and it was UNREAL! A massive hand beaded fairy tale princess dress!) and my sister has made and can make some of the most amazing things – clothing and toys. They can both sew like nobodies business. I can use my machine (barely) and I’ve made a few simple dresses for my girls when they were younger but I had to follow a pattern religiously.

I figured that most of what I wanted to do involved straight lines (I even have trouble with that sometimes) and that at the very least, I could give it a try. First hurdle….finding some fabric, that #1 went with my bedroom colors (as that is where the baby furniture is and where he’ll be rooming for most of the first year.) and #2 that I actually liked and #3 was appropriately boy-ish without being all balls and animals and primary colors. The second hurdle involved the fact that I had NO PATTERN to follow. I figured that at the very least I could try and if it turned out that bad, I’d rope my mother in to helping me.

Fortunately for me, and the family who has to live with me…….I’ve managed to start to pull it all together.

As of this past weekend, I’ve purchased some fabric…..

I’ve finished one crib sheet…..

and I finished one change pad cover……(I’m quite proud of this considering the rounded or scooped edges that I figured out how to do all on my own – YAH ME!)

Here is a closer view…..

I’m almost finished the second change table cover and I still need to make another crib sheet. After that I have to make the bumper pads and the biggest project will be the quilt…. ACK! I’m a little nervous about that one.

My mom did come over to help me figure out how to “fit or secure” the cover and sheet underneath the pads and instead of using elastic, I’ve…..well…..I’ve no idea how to explain what I did. I basically sewed the bottom edge into a corner so there is a pocket for the corners to fit into. I have no idea if you understand and short of going and taking more pics…..which I don’t feel like doing right now….It’s all okay. It works and looks good and more importantly…..they fit perfectly and required no yelling, screaming or swearing.

I’m gonna finish the change table cover today and hopefully the second sheet too.

I think I might even take few minutes to sit down and actually write out a good list of everything that I really want to do before the baby comes and post it somewhere where It won’t get lost.

Oh, and you can see the color that we’ve painted our room in those pics of the change table. When we finish decorating, I’ll take some more pictures and show the whole thing, but for now…that’s a sneek peak!

Olympic Experiences

We had talked about taking the kids into Vancouver to “experience” the Olympic Spirit first hand, but I was really hoping that we wouldn’t have to.

I’m not really “into” the Olympics and I’m even less into the massive crowds and craziness that events like this create.

But, after we woke up and crawled outta bed on Monday morning, the kids still really wanted to go into town and so…..off we went.

We drove into the Joyce Street Sky Train Station and from there bussed down to Granville Street.

Siah was SO excited to be going on the Sky Train. His excitement alone, made the day worth it.

Here he is sitting with his Papa. Jon’s parents joined us for the trip.

The crowds were not as bad as I had imagined them to be, but then again, I like to imagine worst case scenarios and then I’m typically NOT as stressed as I could be.

We walked up Granville Street to Robson and that’s where the fun began. One thing that cracked me up was that Jeremy was SO disappointed that we weren’t going shopping. He pointed out the Sears on Robson and was desperate that we go in to check things out. He LOVES to shop. Funny Boy!

We saw a Paper Lantern Forest. I imagine that it would look AMAZING at night.

Remarkably, this dude didn’t really stand out as being terribly crazy and wierd…..he was just one of the entertainers. Gotta love Vancouver!

Jeremy LOVED this fish, and seeing as he was having the hardest time coping….I was just thrilled that he was showing any sort of an interest in anything. It wasn’t until his Nana explained to him that this could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience and that she had never seen the Olympics firsthand in her whole life, that he started to perk up a little. I guess he figured that he could just go to the next Olympics when they came around again.

I thought that my dad (a fisherman) would love this eagle, as well.

It’s hard to believe that this young lady was my very first baby…

We walked down to Waterfront to get the obligatory Olympic Torch Shots….

Then we took the Waterfront Skytrain back to Joyce and called it a day.

It was a bit much with the 4 kids, BUT……we can look back now and say that we were there. We went. We saw. We experienced……and now we can cross that one off our list.

Yah, I know that I’m still not sounding all that enthused about it all, but Jon walked away feeling the “Olympic Spirit” a bit stronger. That’s gotta count for something, eh?

There are lots more pics to see and you can click through and see them all HERE!

Christmas – The Late Edition

So, This year was a bit different than usual.

Normally, we do our Immediate Family celebrations on Christmas morning and then get together with one side of the family in the afternoon and then do the other side of the family on Boxing Day.

This year, we were already in town for the Christmas Eve service at our church and so we just stayed in and celebrated Christmas Eve with Jon’s Parents and the rest of the family from Jon’s side.

We spent Boxing Day with my side of the family and on Christmas Day………

Christmas Day was a day spent quietly and gloriously at home.

I was dreading spending Christmas Day without family, but things have been SO CRAZY BUSY in our lives and I was looking at 4 straight days in a row of going, going, going and I figured that if I kept up the pace that by the 5th day…..I’d be going, going, going, GONE!

And so, we decided to just have a quiet, “down” day with just us for Christmas Day.

All I had running through my head was my own Childhood experiences and memories which led me to believe that Christmas morning was AWESOME with the stockings, and family breakfast and then gift opening and then having a grandparent or two swing past with more presents and then……..

….and then all I can remember is how boring Christmas Afternoon/Evening was…….until I became a teenager and friends would come over and we’d play games or go and see a movie or something…

I had an amazing family and I know that this is not “the truth” this is a young girls memory of how exciting the morning was and how the afternoon/evening paled in comparison…..so you can guess that the morning was pretty freaking amazing. Let’s just leave it at MOUNTAINS of GIFTS…….and move on from there……

I was feeling a bit stressed that I wouldn’t enjoy Christmas and that I’d feel kinda bummed and a little bit sad and lonely.

The kids slept in on Christmas morning…how’s that for a Christmas miracle.

Everyone was still asleep at 8am…then they all woke up and got their stockings while Jon and I tried to wake up. We’d stayed up late wrapping presents. Stupid, stupid, STUPID!!!!!….We do this every year and then every year we swear to do things differently. GAH!

Around 9am we came down and had our traditional “Sugar Cereal” breakfast (I don’t buy sugar cereal almost ever so it’s a pretty huge deal when we do get some) and when that was done, we started in to the presents.

click on the picture to see the set

I don’t remember the “timing” of the rest of the day, but it was the most relaxing, quiet, slow, amazing day that we have had as a family in a long, LONG time!

There was no place to go and nothing to do aside from “just being” together. We started a puzzle, played games, had some food, and even watched a movie together in the early evening.

I felt “recharged” at the end of the day, which is so out of the ordinary. Typically we come home and feel like we’re about to die, knowing that we have another whole day to ~~get through~~ celebrate with the family.

Don’t get me wrong. We love our families, but sometimes the pace of it all feels overwhelmingly insane. I loved the fact that looking back at the “Christmas Holiday’s” – I actually felt like I had a holiday and didn’t feel like I needed a holiday to get over the “holiday’s”.

It was a great Christmas! It was probably the BEST Christmas that I’ve ever had…..but then again I say that every year.

New Stages of Life

Angelica is 12 years old.

It’s hard to believe that I have a daughter who is almost a teenager. It feels like the time has flown by so fast. It was not so long ago that I held all 7 pounds 14 ounces of her and her fuzzy black hair for the first time and thought, “I’m a mom now?!?” I remember being 12. I remember the difficulty of wanting so badly to be grown up and to fit in with all the adults that I thought were so cool and so mature. (People who were my age – Ha Ha Ha HA!) I also remember still wanting to run and play with the little kids.

It was a tough age inside my head and also inside my body as I changed and grew so much that year.

I see the same things happening in my daughter and I’m so excited for her…..for us….for what this all means…..I’m just excited.

She is a really great kid and over the last 6 months, she has really grown and matured in so many ways.

We went to Whistler recently and I took WAY TOO MANY pictures while I was there. I dumped them to my computer in the evenings and while going through the pics. I was so shocked and surprised to see her in a new light.

She really is growing up…..and fast!

Those are my shoes she’s wearing in that last picture. She still has a few inches before she hits my 5’10”, but I’m pretty sure she’ll make it and surpass me.

This is such an amazing time where we get to learn and grow together – Her, as a young adult and Me, as a mother of a young adult. She gets to stretch her wings and provided that I’ve done a good job of teaching her how to make decisions and the weigh the consequences – I should be prepared to let her stretch those wings from time to time as we move toward a time and place where I’m confident and proud and even encouraging her to be stepping out on her own.

She is a GREAT kid and I know that she’ll be a great Young Adult and then eventually an Adult.

I’m not thinking that this time won’t have it’s challenges. Every phase of life brings it’s own rewards and challenges and this time is no different. But I’m looking forward to this new chapter in our lives.

As I mentioned before, we are trying desperately to teach our kids choices and consequences and that we are always here for them and that our love is unconditional. We want our kids to run TOWARD us if they make a choice that has tough consequences and not to be scared or ashamed or to pull away from us. So far it’s working.

They know that we love, accept and embrace them even when they make choices that negatively affect them and others. They are really grasping the concept that “they” are making the choices and that they, are in effect “choosing” their consequences. It’s not always fun, but it’s a great step toward taking responsibility for your own actions.

It also is teaching them to think about what the different consequences of the different choices might me. And… they get to weigh in and choose what’s most important to them. We’ve also found that it has severely cut down on the number of fights and disagreements that we have in the house, and that alone is worth the extra effort that this process takes versus the concept of…..”Obey because I said so or else!”

Angelica has her first babysitting job tomorrow night and she is SO excited. I’m excited for her, too. Even though it’s just 2 doors down from us in our complex, I would have never let her babysit 6 months ago. She’s come a long way in a short time and I know that she’ll do a fabulous job.

I’m so proud of the woman she’s becoming.

Just trying to Breathe

OH TODAY………..

Well, if you follow me on Twitter, then you would have had first hand witness to the colossal train wreck that was me on my way into the Vancouver Blogher Meet Up. It was AMAZING….seriously! Even if you don’t follow me, just go ahead and click on that link and have a good laugh.

You might have to go back a page (click on “more”) and it starts with the “Headed into Vancouver….running a bit late” post.

My stress level started out fairly manageable, and honestly – I was doing so well (in my head – HA!) and then the closer we got the more I started freaking out and honestly….if I hadn’t put it out here that I was going to this and if I hadn’t had a bit of encouragement then I probably wouldn’t have gone.

AWESOME!!!! Isn’t it?

Alright, well! As you could see – all tweets stopped after I left the car. What you can’t see is that Jon dropped me off at the WRONG Cafe Artigiano. I seriously just about chewed my left arm off trying to convince myself to walk down the road and into the place and when I got in there….it was empty…..lemme back up a moment…..

See, I had asked Jon to find the address and he went online looking to look it up. He is typically very competent and so I figured that all was good. We drove to the original location and in my stress and panic I had totally forgot that the location had changed.

So, here I am in an almost empty Coffee Shop and am absolutely lost for what to do. I stand there for a moment trying to come up with something and then I leave. I walk down the road and remember that the location had changed and that Jon must not have seen that post……LOVELY! So, I’m frantically typing into my blackberry trying to figure out the other location or to pull up the Blogher Post where it’s mentioned……So I call Jon…..and he’s circling the block until he figures that I’m not going to freak…..

Awesome! If that doesn’t make me feel stupid, I don’t know what does.

So he picks me up and we head to the right place.

See haven’t even walked in the “correct” door and already I have a “story” about today. So all that original stress of having to walk into the place…..and I have to go and do it all again. GGGGGAAAAWWWWKKK!

So, I walk in……..see all these beautiful women……..and although I’m feeling TOTALLY out of my element….it’s all okay.

Well, that’s a load of crap. It was not “all okay.” It was good. It was great. It was also VERY stressful for me.

I’m at home and it’s 2+ hours since I left and only now am I starting to be able to breathe again.

I know how stupid this is. Believe me. Anxiety is not a fun thing. I HATE that this “thing” has had such a control on my life and I’m doing everything in my power to face my demons head on.

I am thrilled that I went. I know that given a day or 10, that I’ll look back on this and be all, “That was the best time EVER! I’m so glad that I went. It was NOTHING. I could TOTALLY do that again.”

And the thing is, now that I’ve done it. I totally could. Does it mean that I won’t spazz out the next time that I do something like this. Nope! Probably still will, BUT….I’m not letting this thing rule my life.

I was thrilled to practice my small talk (NOT) annd I’m so blessed to have met all these amazing women, and hopefully we’ll get to meet again and maybe I’ll say more than 2 words.

Honestly guys, I’m not so quiet when I’m not freaking out. I’m not the worlds hugest extrovert, but I’m not quite so quiet.

Regardless of what comes of today…..I know that I did something that was HUGE for me. And…..I did manage to meet some real life people, and…. I feel like I’m a bit more a part of this local blogging community.

And all of “that” makes me very, very happy.

Waiting…..more waiting.

We had just sat down to watch a movie tonight and the baby started crying. He was saying owie and then asking for me and then more crying and well, I’m not sure why he woke up , but he doesn’t want Jon, but he does want to nurse and well….we don’t do that in the night. You know, unless he was really honestly sick or something and needed the extra comfort.

I recognize that I’m well into the “extended nursing phase” and quite frankly I’ve been surprised at the LACK of nasty comments that I’ve gotten. Not that i want any nasty comments, but Siah is definately far beyond what is considered normal to still be nursing. There are lots of people that I’ve read about and fewer that I’ve actually known who nursed beyond 2 years old and so when I sit down and nurse Siah in a public place….I’m not nasty about it, but he might nurse around noon when he would take a nap and if I’m out, then I nurse him…..I’m pretty sure people are thinking it and I get the “surprised” looks, but so far no ones said anything.

I won’t be nursing him when he’s 5 so don’t get all excited, but we’re enjoying this time together. Maybe he enjoys it more than I do, but we’re not ready to quit quite yet……I’m sure you’ll all hear about it when it happens….’cause I’m kinda open like that.

Okay, so all of that had NOTHING to do with what I was going to talk about tonight which was that we are waiting to hear some news.

It could be good news, it could be bad news or it could be so so news. I think that about covers any response that we could get back from the people that we made an offer to for their house.

We should hear something sometime tomorrow.

I’m hoping that we do get the home, but I know that if it’s not meant to be then it won’t happen and while I would LOVE to live in this house – I can be confident knowing that God has it all under control and that He is leading and guiding us.

If this one doesn’t work out – while I think that this could be a good fit for our family, there is obviously a better home for us.

To tell you a little bit about our offer and about the home….

We have offered a little over $20,00 less than the asking price. This is kind of a HUGE deal for me as we could do the asking price, but our Realtor did some homework and found another house in the same neighborhood with a smaller house, but a slightly bigger property that sold 3 months ago and we are offering roughly what that house sold for. This house has been on the market for a while and we are hoping that they want to sell it.

It has 3 bedrooms with one extra kind of weird room that could be used as a den or office or a bedroom. We will need to put the girls together and the boys together in bedrooms and so from that aspect it’s different from here where each kid has their own room, but when we walked into the place it felt like home more than any other place that we saw.

It has a kitchen that opens into an eating area which is seperated by a hallway from the dining room which opens in to the front living room from which the front doors opens and then hooks around again into the kitchen……off of the eating area and down 4 steps is a family room….

It all feels very open and cozy – if that’s even possible…I know that they typically contradict each other. There is a wood burning stove that would be awesome in the winter and the yard is fenced which is AWESOME especially for Siah.

We can SEE ourselves in this place for the next few years until the kids grow up and need more space.

We are praying that God would lead and direct us and we are willing to walk away, but we would LOVE to live in this place…if we had a say in it all.

And so….we wait…..hoping……

The Family That Eats Together…..

I had planned our weekly menu for the week and tonight we were going to have stuffed potatoes…..kind of a twist on Taco’s….Baked Potatoes – topped with ground beef and lettuce and tomatoes, and cheese, sour cream and salsa……Mmmmm Mmmmm Delicious!

We picked the kids up from school and came home and I was farting around on the Internet and read this post at Balancing Everything. It sounded like so much fun, and I figured that my kids would love to make some potstickers. I found this recipe and figured that I could adapt it slightly and we’d be golden.

We used Kamut Flour instead of regular flour and aside from that – we pretty much followed the recipe.

Jeremy wasn’t too excited about all of this. He pretty much hates anything new. I had high hopes that he’d help with cutting and grating the veggies and that somehow the actual involvement would mean that he would love this meal. Ya….not so much!

He did help out some, and even ate two of the potstickers, BUT that was only after some serious ~~threatening~~ ~~forcing~~ ~~cajoling~~ encouraging.

Siah helped out by throwing his incredible cuteness around…….

Geli made some of the most amazing potstickers. This photo does absolutely NO justice to how amazing looking her potstickers looked. Even if they were not traditionally looking potstickers…..still – AMAZING!

After all was said and done, the potstickers tasted amazing. It was an easy – if somewhat involved – meal to make and mostly everybody liked them.

I think that we’ll probably make them again and we might even try pyrogies sometime soon…..maybe Jeremy would like those….then again – probably not!

Click here to see the Potsticker set in all it’s glory.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30