Chicken and Seafood Jambalaya

I have gotten a few requests for the recipe so here it is - it is actually VERY easy, it looks more complicated than it is and is well worth the effort!

Seasoning Mix:
2 whole bay leaves
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 ½ tsp dried oregano leaves
1 ¼ tsp white pepper
1 tsp black pepper
¾ tsp dried thyme leaves

2 ½ tblsp Olive Oil or Safflower Oil
2/3 cup chopped Tasso or other smoked ham
½ cup chopped andouille sausage (or other good smoked sausage)
1 ½ cups chopped onion
1 cup celery
¾ cup chopped green bell peppers (I have been known to add a jalapeno or other fun spicy pepper to kick it up as well – depends on who’s coming to dinner, wink!)
1 ½ cups chicken, cut into bite size pieces
1 ½ tsp minced garlic (I add more because I love garlic and it really enhances the dish!)
4 medium size tomatoes, peeled and chopped (I use 1 14 oz can of the Hunt’s diced tomatoes with green peppers, onion and garlic or celery – whatever you can find)
¾ cup canned tomato sauce
2 cups Seafood Stock (again, I use my leftover shrimp shells to make a broth and substitute chicken broth for any additional stock that is needed, always turns out divine)
2 cups uncooked long grain rice
1 ½ dozen (or more) medium shrimp
You can also add scallops, oysters or other seafood per your taste - this is a jambalaya that you want bursting at the seams with chicken, sausage and seafood!

Sidebar: When I am cooking for a crowd, I just adjust the recipe as I see fit. I might add more broth and more rice and a few more shrimp and seasonings to taste. This is a recipe that you can play with until your heart is content, it will never turn out bad!!!

Combine the seasoning mix ingredients in a small bowl, set aside.

In a 4 quart saucepan, melt the fat (or oil) over medium heat. Add the Tasso and andouille sausage and sauté until crisp, about 5-8 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the Trinity – the onions, celery and peppers; sauté until tender but firm, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally and scraping bottom of pan as well. Add the chicken. Raise heat to high and cook 1 minute stirring constantly.

Reduce heat to medium. Add the seasoning mix and minced garlic, cook about 3 minutes, stirring constantly and scraping bottom of pan as needed. Add the tomatoes and cook until chicken is tender, about 5-8 minutes. Add the tomato sauce; cook about 7 minutes stirring often. Stir in the stock and bring to a boil. Add the rice, shrimp and oysters, stir well.

At this point the recipe calls for you to transfer it to an oven safe pan and bake for 30 minutes however, I have always just put the lid on the pan, reduced the heat, set the timer for 20 minutes (without lifting the lid at all) and let it cook. After 20 minutes, lift the lid, stir and determine if more cooking time is needed. If so, return the lid until done. If it is ready, plate it and dig in!!

Under the weather

Hey there everyone, I know I haven't posted since Friday, which to me seems like an eternity. I have been under the weather with this upper respiratory infection/virus that my lovely son, Alexander passed on to me. I have only been posting a few emails here and there and catching up where needed. I can assure you I will get caught up as I have LOTS to catch up on here but it will probably be tomorrow or Thursday before I can do so as it takes an enormous amount of creativity and energy to come up with something new every day. I am not as quick and witty as it may seem at times, it's hard work for me, lol!

Any way, please know that I haven't forgotten about you. I will return after a quick message from our sponsors...(wink)!

XOXOXO,
Kimberly

Fabulous Food Friday!!!

I just had to share that we just ate the most yummy, scrumptious Jambalaya. I love good cajun and/or spicy food and we like to kick this one up a notch. No, this isn't an Emeril recipe, this is from the other famous N'awlin's chef, Paul Prudhomme. I had the opportunity to take a cooking class with him once when I lived in Greenville (it was a charity thing) and I learned so much. The best advice he gave us was that when you see all those spices listed in a recipe that you should divide them into thirds and add a lil' bit in the beginning, middle and end. He explained that as your food cooks, the spices change flavors and if you want to really experience ALL the flavors in a dish, to ration out your spices so that you can distinctly taste the spices in all their glory. So anyway, as I digress, he was awesome and I have been a huge fan of his cooking for many years. Tonight, I pulled out his famous Louisiana Kitchen cookbook and turned to my favorite recipe and got to cookin'. I always forget how easy this recipe is to make and I always say that I should make it more often. Anyway, here are some (not very good pics) of the ingredients and final product. I used chicken and shrimp tonight because I was all out of the tasso sausage which I absolutely love! It was good just the same. Just use whatever ingredients you've got and this is one recipe you can "play" with to suit your tastes. Let me know if you want me to post the recipe.

The "Trinity" ~ celery, onion and pepper (I used an orange one b/c it tastes like a green one and I like the color combo)

The Trinity mixed up, being sauteed! My house is smellin' good.....

Of course, doesn't everyone make their own fish stock? In my case, I save up all my raw discarded shrimp shells, put them in a handy dandy Food Saver bag, pop those babies in the freezer until I need a good fish/shrimp stock and then I simmer them up for about 15 minutes in about 2 cups of water until the broth is ready. It is a quick easy solution when you need a quick stock. Another Paul Prudhomme tip that I use ALL the time!)

The finished product right before we dove in! I bet you wish you were here right now don't cha??? Off to sit and wallow in my stuffed misery....

XOXOXO,

Kimberly

Thankful Thursday

Last week I decided I would see what I could say YES to this week and here is what we did:

• went to the park on a whim
• played Littlest Pet Shop Monopoly (again) & realized we own SIX varying monopoly games. We should all be good financial wizards lol!
• read lots and lots of books
• went ice skating
• played with teeny tiny little plastic animals

Those were just a few of the fun things we found to do in between school, homework and other stuff. It felt great to just stop and do something fun and in fact, I will be doing more impromptu fun stuff going forward..now I just need to remember to keep the batteries in my camera charged at all times so I can capture it on film, wink!

My cousin Haley posted in her blog a great poem about what happens to all your photographs and memories. Are they in a box under the bed, are they in shoe boxes in the back of the closet? Where are they and what did you do with them. Well, I had this major pang of guilt come over me because as much as I take the photos, gosh, what do I really do with them? Sure, I frame a few, I scrapbook (ha, ha, ha) a very few (I should do more of this as I have the supplies just no time, hmmp?). So what now? Then I looked around my house and realized that more are framed than not. I don't have expensive artwork hanging on my walls, I am not that kind of girl. I have maybe one or two purchased art pieces on our walls. What we DO have on our walls is years and years of memories. I have LOTS of things custom framed but it's not the usual stuff. I get framed the most brilliant and beautiful pieces of art that my kids bring home. I change out the photos as they age up. I even have a very college-esque 4'x3' Pottery Barn style bulletin board hanging in my formal dining room with mementos, photos, concert tickets, brochures, kids artwork and more on it. I even have neighbors who have started the same kinds of boards in their own homes because they too want to share but were "afraid" of doing something to horribly "tacky" on a wall of their home. (OH, I forgot to mention that this dorm room bulletin board style of decorating is on the direct opposite wall of those mighty fine bottles of wine and yummy looking wine glasses you see in the post below. So if you were wondering what my house might look like, well, that about describes it!)

Ya know what? This is our life, our home, our sanctuary. I don't care if people call it tacky or say that I have no decorating tastes because you know what? Everything hanging everywhere in my home reminds me of someone special and gives us great joy. Our children will hopefully remember how much they are loved because we always managed to work something of theirs into our decorating scheme. So, while this post has gotten long, I challenge each and every one of you to do the following:

• put up a large, prominent bulletin board somewhere in your home. Every time you go some where, get pictures of friends, a postcard from a loved one, small gifts from the kids or whatever is important to you.....and post it on the board until it is filled to the brim. You'll be surprised at how many people comment on it and are filled with joy by what you've shared.
• Get large frames that you can put a picture in the middle and there is still enough room around the edges to either write favorite kids quotes or add photos and mementos of them growing up. I am starting one for each of my kids and in the center I am placing a copy of their birth certificate, their arms bands from the hospital when they were born and their first feet prints as these are things that will never be changed for each of them. I am the going to add all the other stuff and hang these prominently in my family room. I already have the frames and will post pics when I am done later this weekend - so check back!
• Custom frame your children's/grandchildren's art work. It meant a lot to them when they made it, it will mean even more for them to see if framed and hung just like they see other's work in the art galleries!
• Be creative, I want to see and hear about what you have done.

So as I end this thankful Thursday, I am in love and thankful for all the "little" things in my life. The scratch marks on my dining room table from all the crafts and homework, the toothpaste still attached to the side of the bathroom sink, the very same sink that overflowed last night because Christian wanted to see what happened when you plugged it up and filled it full of water. I am thankful for children that are happy (most days) and are content with being just who they are without feeling like they need to please or be some other way. I am thankful for family that sends sweet notes and cards for no reason at all. I am thankful for just one more day to experience it all.....

Have a great afternoon!
XOXOXO,
Kimberly

p.s. I KNOW you, yes, that means you.....reads our blog all the time. Don't be afraid to post a comment or share about what you think, your own blog or whatever. Stop lurking and come out to play with us! For those of you that do comment, we thank you. It is always good to hear from you. But with 10-30 hits per day at times, I know more people are reading than commenting. Come on, give us the love!!

Finally, subjects who are willing to pose...

and NOT complain, lol! Day 23 images... Do you think we have a small "wine" problem?
I thought I'd show you her cute little face filled to the brim. My MIL got these for us last year and I just adore these glasses. They are fun and funky and always a conversation starter!!

And then there is my DD who is always willing to pose no matter what. Here we just got back from school and she was clowing around and wanted to know if I could take a picture of her from the mirror vantage point. So, here it is!XOXOXO~
Kimberly

TALENT!

Our oldest baby has more talent in his little pinky than most people have in their entire bodies. He is musically gifted. He plays guitar beautifully, he even composes his own music for his band, UnderAge Thinking. He plays the acoustic and electric guitars, we now own 5 of varying types, with finesse and ease when he wants or at times he totally rocks the house with a little punk action or classic rock. He also plays sax, piano, dabbles on the harmonica and is taking voice lessons. Can you tell he is our "peace, love and happiness" child? This is what becomes of a child who hated lullabies as a baby, oh, he would cry with the baby stuff. Bob put the Grateful Dead American Beauty CD in and by the 2nd song he was asleep each and every time without fail. He started in the crib with his love of music. Some of his favorite artists are BB King, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, The Stones, Ramones, the Beatles, and so much more. Very eclectic tastes if you ask me!!


Needless to say, we think he rocks both musically and personally. He has rocked live performances at a few restaurants in town and has quite the girl following. Maybe because he's such a hottie. I'll have to take pictures of his new smokin' hot hair cut. He has the Johnny Reznik, of the famed Goo Goo Dolls style going on now. It's pretty hip. However, until I get a picture posted of that, I'll post one of my other favorites of him as my day 22 photo!


Enjoy and peace!
XOXOXO
~K

Can you stand another picture of my kids?

We decided to join a few other families at the ice skating rink today for a little winter fun. Well, Hannah of course skated circles around all her friends, with the exception of Emma, who proved to be a perfect match for her. Christian decided 1 lap around was enough to give him his frosty winter sensation so he was ready to leave the ice. Drats, now what do I do? I wanted to skate, especially with Hannah Mac because she is surprisingly good and can keep up with me. Decisions, decisions..... well, about that time, Xander decides that since he has no friends there, he really isn't that interested in skating alone. While I am sad he doesn't want to skate, ding, ding, a light goes off....he can watch Christian for a bit while I hang out with the girls. Since he was content to do that, off I went. A few circles back around, I come to find out that my darling 3 year old had an "accident" and I don't mean of the spilling soda variety. Darn it, now what? We had only been there for a short time. I decided that since he wasn't complaining and didn't really seem to care, I went back out with Hannah for a another round or two, gathered up the kiddies, headed to the snack shack for a hot pretzel and then we headed home in the nice WARM car. I know, it stinks sometimes being a mom and having to make those quick decisions on do I stay or do I go when things like this happen and you (meaning me) are not prepared. I decided to let my son sit in wet pants for a bit, I am sure somewhere down the road he'll be telling his therapist all about it. :-)

Here are some pictures of the day! Day 21 and going strong!!! I realized that the moose looks stressed inall of these!!

Photos, Flickr & Fun!!!

Hey there! Well, it's been a couple days since I posted so here I am to catch up. I will also post the photos from the last 3 days for the 366 I am doing this year so be sure to read back. Now, give me a bit of time since I am not a magician and cannot post all the photos at once so just keep checkin' back baby!!

This weekend has been so much fun. Saturday, Hannah and I went with 12 other moms and daughters to the American Girl Place in LA at The Grove. It was an amazing experience and if you have daughters in the 6-12 age range, please, please be sure to go to your nearest one with them. We purchased the Day at the Am. Girl Place package which included:

• $120 in spending moola
• 2 tickets for lunch or tea (we did lunch - it was fabulous I might add)
• 2 tickets to the musical (the cast was amazing)
• 1 magazine photo session
• 1 musical performance CD
• 1 t-shirt for the doll

It was well worth each and every dime!! Hannah was able to get Mia, the 2008 Doll of the Year and the entire starter package with the package money and b-day $$ from the grandma's! We had an awesome mother/daughter day, it will be a day we will never forget.

Today, I met up with 4 other professional photogs at the San Clemente pier for lunch and a photo shoot. I learned more in those 3 hours than I have in the last 3 months. Below are some photos from the day, the other kids are one of the photographer's that was there (Hannah was the only one of my kids there). I think that between the classes I am taking, more days like these and just getting a feel for how I want "my style" to be, I think that I am going to re-work my website, my company name and my branding within the next 6-8 months. I have never been so happy at a job in all my life, I love capturing these moments. Let me know what you think of today's shots..... Oh, by the way, I am on Flickr now as well, check it out for more pictures, I am going to start linking the photos here to either Flickr or my website (baby steps)!!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/16942782@N04/ XOXOXO,
Kimberly

FABULOUS FRIDAY!!!

The b-day girl at school!!

~ Day 18 of 2008 ~

Thankful Thursdays...

Thank you so much for all of you that checked in on Hannah yesterday. I took her to the doc who told me that she had a possibility of having one of 2 things: an allergic reaction to the Zicam or Erythmea Multiforme, which looks like a "target" type rash and is caused by an internal virus. Since she has had a raspy throat since Sunday, he was inclined to believe that she had the virus. Nothing to give for the virus but did prescribe PeriActin (a kicked up Benadryl) to help the itchy-scratchies. Gave her a dose of the Peri stuff last night and it knocked her out! However she woke up this morning to having about 95% of the rash gone. With this, I am inclined to believe that it was an allergic reaction because he said the virus would look worse before it got better and would last another 3-4 days. So much for the "professional" guidance, lol! Anyway, she is doing great and I am so thankful.

Well, I promised something fun, so each Thursday I am going to post all the things that I (we) have to be thankful for. There is so much out there that is negative, I want to show the positives about how great and fun life really can be!!!

This holiday season has been kind of rough for me and I've been trying to keep it to myself. Internalizing takes too much energy: it's difficult to think of posting coherent thoughts here when I'm nowhere near coherent in my own head. But it's a new year and one of my resolutions is to let go- stop being anxious/angry/frustrated with those situations (and people!) that will never change. Far better, I think, to just let go and move on.

So what am I thankful for this Thursday?

• fresh, hot homemade oatmeal with flax seed and blueberries, yum!
• having very funny kids. My daughter who is the queen of commercials (she'll never be allowed to have a credit card and watch late night infomercials) says things like this - Me: Hannah this medicine will make you sleepy. Her: I know it will make me DROWSY. Me: How do you know that word? Her: On the Zyrtec commercial, they said that it was the only medicine that would not make you drowsy and the others would. Me: Hmmmp!
• Conversation the other day with Hannah - Her: MOM (excitedly), you can stop throwing away old apples. (she hates apples so why would she care?) Me: really? why? Her: because if you get the Debbie Meyer's fruit & veggie saver bags, your fruit and veggies will stay fresh much longer. Me: really? ........ Oh my goodness, either we let her watch too much tv (which in my opinion isn't much by today's standards) or she is the commercial queen!!! She LOVES to recite commercials and when the conversation is happening, she sounds like Ron Popeil, it is quite humorous!!!
• going to the pirate park with the kids seeing them run, jump and play without another worry in the world.
• putting our kids in warm baths, cozy slippers and reading fun books at the end of the night.
• songs that Xander makes up on the guitar for people he cares about.
• my husband looking HOT again now that he is losing so much weight. He really looks good these days, I am very proud of him.

Those are just a few of the things that I am thankful for this Thursday. For this next week starting today, I am going to see how many times I can say YES to the kids. I say NO to so many things, no you can't do this, no I don't have time to do that with you, etc. So next week, check back in to see what we could do together this week. I'll be interested myself to see the list.

I'll post the day 17 pictures sometime later today after I get my act together. I have a photography challenge that my mentor issued so I've got to get crackin' on that!

Have a wonderful and blessed day ~
XOXOXO
Kimberly

Days of our hives.....

Well, not sure what is going with the princess so I've scheduled an 11:45am doc appt. Hannah is covered in what we believe are hives. I had my RN friend/neighbor come over last night to make sure is wasn't chicken pox and neither of us think it is, so we'll see what the doc thinks. She has had a bit of a scratchy throat since Sunday but I didn't see any indications of strep and her lymph nodes don't appear to be swollen so I haven't been too concerned. I gave her some Zicam and sore throat lozenges and sent her on her way. I personally am thinking that she may be allergic to something in the Zicam so we'll see. I think I will be making allergist appts for the Mac and Xander this week. Bob and Christian has already been to an allergist so we know what they are allergic too, now it's time to find out about the other two.... and the saga continues!!

She's covered head to toe. I'll update again after the appointment when we know more!

XOXOXO,
~K

Happy Birthday Hannah Mac!

My dearest sweet baby girl turns SIX today! It took us so long to get pregnant with her that we almost thought we would never have another child. When she came into our lives she turned our world upside down (in a fantastic way)! She rocked our world then and still continues to amaze us each and every day!! She is such a beautiful child inside and out. She is SOOOO popular that I have to turn play dates away because her calendar is so booked up and she even has a boy in her class, Carson, that fights with the other girls just for the opportunity to sit near her or hang out with her in class.

Yes, I know, we are proud parents however, she is so amiable and kind and laid back that she gets along with anyone and everyone. Don't get us wrong, when she really wants to be heard, you can hear it from the mountain tops as she is not afraid to speak up and tell you what she thinks however, she is also just as content going with the flow and letting other people do what they want instead of arguing about it.

As meek and mild as she may seem on the outside, that girl is one tough cookie, lol! She is our adrenaline junkie. She is not afraid of anything, which scares us sometimes. And she is willing to try most anything (except for new foods) and truly embraces all that life has to offer. We are very proud of her!!!

Oh how we love our only daughter. She brings us so much joy. I know she will do great things in her life.

This morning we surprised her with breakfact in bed and Xander serenaded her on the guitar with a funky blues riff and a song he made up just for her. Since it is a "non - party" year, our gift to her was a mother/daughter day out to the American Girl store in LA. We will be going there with 12 other moms and daughters who all have birthdays in January/February and having lunch, seeing a musical and having fun. It should be a fun day for her!

Anyway, Hannah Mac, we love you today, tomorrow and always. Thank you for being you.

Love,

Mom and Dad

Day 15, another picture!

Well, we had a serious leak in our dishwasher which caused water to seep in under our hard wood floors. It actually caused a "rise" in several planks and was rather bothersome. Well, today, they came out to rip up our floor and wow were the floors wet underneath. Who ever laid the floors years ago used linoleum as the moisture barrier and a water solvent glue. Well, what happens when water gets into a water solvent glue????????? It separates and comes apart causing the wood floor to swell and rise. Our floor was off the meter on the moisture meter, well over a 6! Now I have bare concrete in my kitchen until the concrete dries, then the moisture barrier will be placed down, again another day or 2 to dry and then the planks. Here are a few pictures of my kitchen in its current state. All of these pictures are SOOC (straight out of the camera) with no processing done on them so pardon the color.

Can you see the dampness of the concrete?

The water damage under the flooring caused the other planks to "wave" so they had to take up about an 8x8 section.

The underside of the removed pieces of flooring with the vinyl still attached. VERY wet!

Off the meter moisture readings!

The final view after all the planks and remainder of the glue were scraped off the concrete. Don't ask me why the concrete looks like that, I have no idea. Those white areas are also circled in red, so not sure what that means?????

Woo Hoo, I have a mentor!!

I have a mentor, I have a mentor! Woo hoo, woo hoo! Oh, did I mention that I now have a new photography mentor? I am so excited. In addition to the classes I am taking and all that I am learning and my dear darling friends and clients that I am using as test subjects, I now have a partner in crime! One that will issue out the assignements, be my harshest critic and give me the tough love that everyone else thinks will hurt my feelings. She doesn't care about my feelings, she just cares that I learn and take great photos!

I am ecstatic! Can you tell? This made my day! Woo hoo! Woo hoo!

Check out some of her work, she is dynamic and has a great eye! Yes, I know she is a million miles away from me but that doesn't matter, I don't need someone to hold my hand, just someone to answer my emails and questions!

Here she is:
http://amynielson.blogspot.com/

I'll post my picture of the day later on!

~K

Good Morning!

Good morning friends and fam ~

I have decided that I am going to start posting daily (I am gonna try, :-)) and really let you get to know all about us and what happens in our daily lives, ie all the mischief that the short people get into and what our soon to be teenager is into these days.

I am also working on a 366 project this year where I take and post at least one photo per day for the entire year. No particular subject or theme, just random, something about nothing pictures. I take pictures each and every day of my life however, I haven't always posted them here. And since I am taking a few photography courses and learning from the best, I hope that there will be some visible improvement throughout the year. All critiques are welcome, I have thick skin, I can take it!! Anyway, the 366 pictures will be just about anything and everything so check back often.

I also have some plans in store for the blog in the days/weeks to come. This blog was really started so that I could online journal instead of sitting down with the dreaded pen and paper which takes me twice the amount of time to do. And for all you mom's out there, time is a precious commodity and and I don't have extra time in the day. However, I have decided that I want to spice up the blog a bit and make it a fun journal of sorts, so be sure to again, come back often and check in with the Grove's.

Do you have a blog or website that you keep up with? We would love to keep up with you as much as you join us on our journey. Shoot me an email or comment below to give me the web address. Don't be shy, I'd love to keep up with you too. If you send me pictures, I'll post them here as well.

Gotta run, the moose has been alone for more than a few minutes and has gotten very quiet.....uh oh. Back with a picture of why he was so quiet, lol! Mom, he says, "my treasures are in there." Not sure if he was burying them or digging them up.... my poor potted plants, they struggle to survive around a very precocious 3 year old. Can you see all the dirt all over his hands?? :-) I guess this will be picture #14 for the year in my 366!! I'll post the others on the appropriate days before the weekend's up.

XOXOXO,
Kimberly

Saturday Morning Fever....

Talk about a busy weekend, had I known my day was going to be so busy, I think I just might have crawled back under the covers. There was certainly no rest for the weary today!

This morning I was up at 5am to put the final prep work on the items going in the back packs for Bob and Xander. Of course, Bob was conveniently at his apnea sleep study and Xander was still comfortably asleep. So hmmmmm, good thing I am an experienced back pack packer!! On this overnight boy scout trip, they were not allowed to bring the camp stoves or build fires so everything they took to eat had to be pre-prepared, no cooking was permitted. I made nice grilled chicken salads this morning and put everything in their own baggies so that all they had to do was combine the ingredients and have an instant healthy meal! After the phone call I got tonight I am glad I went to the extra effort this morning. The other boys were having cold hot dogs wrapped in tortillas or beef jerky and things of that nature, yuk, yuk and yuk to the cold hot dogs!!! My boys were happy with their vittles!

As soon as I got the boys out the door, it was time to get Hannah up and out the door to a dance program that was put on by the San Clemente High School National Champion Dance team. She was there from 8:30-1 and learned all sorts of fancy new moves. Then when they were done the SCHS Dancers took the stage and rocked the house. I can certainly see why they earned the National Champ title this year, because those girls could dance, they were phenomenal!

Kelly, Hannah and Kennedy

While they were there, the moose and I had a play date at the Pirate Park for a couple of hours with some of his friends. He had such a good time that he threw himself on the concrete at the end and proceeded to cry and tell me "just a few more minutes, please mommy" but no, the mean and evil mommy put her foot down and peeled him off the pavement and took him back home so that we could go pick up Hannah from the dance program.

Then Hannah spent the rest of the day at the mall with her neighborhood friends and the moose and I went to Borders to read some books and putz about. It was a busy fun-filled afternoon and now I am ready to crash. And I would except for the fact that Hannah is still across the street playing Little Pet Shop Monopoly with all her friends. I didn't want to tell them that she is a slum lord and deceptively good at that game. She is the quiet type that has figured out which properties to buy that will yield her the fasted ROI and basically causes everyone else to crumble! Monopoly is her game!!!

So anyway, I am off to hang out with my youngest boy and cuddle with him for a few minutes before he heads off to slumber land.

Good night to all.
~K

An atheist going to christian camp???

Okay, so we were at church last night and get to the sign in table where the Jr High kids sign in for their respective group and there is a brochure for Winter Camp at Forest Home there. Xander went last year and immediately begged to be able to go again this year. All good and well right?

Now back up to about a month ago when Xander proceeds to tell me that he isn't sure what he believes, science, the Big Bang theory, evolution, or even in God. It turned into a very philosophical discussion that was left open ended as I know my boy really believes but he is struggling because there are so many questions that are obviously unanswered. At the end of the conversation, he decided that he would be an atheist because he really wasn't sure and that's where he felt comfortable. Okay, so I left it at that and didn't press any more. These teenage years are starting to settle in and take hold so I am trying my best to go with the flow here....

Anyway, fast forward to last night. He is AT CHURCH and very excited to be there. He wants to go to this VERY CHRISTIAN camp so I turn to him and say, "ya know honey, athiests don't really go to christian camps because they don't believe in the same things". Well, the look on his face was absolutely priceless and for the first time in a long time, he was dead silent. Of course being the witty reproduction of his father, he quickly came back with...."what are you talking about mom? that not believeing thing was sooo three weeks ago!"

So there, out of the mouths of babes. If you leave stuff well alone, I guess it all works itself out!!!

Have a great day.
~K
XOXOXO

Happy New Year...

Wow, can you believe that it is already 2008? It's funny because I think back to being in high school or even college and the year 2000, the new millennium, seemed so far away, filled with new age possibilities and dreams of a new world. Now look at us, we are already almost a decade into the new millennium and we are still just as civilized as we were 20 years ago. Oh wait, did I just say 20 years? Yup, with 2008, it also welcomes in the fact that I will be headed to my TWENTY YEAR high school reunion. Can you believe it? I can't. But what I can believe it how good the last 20 years have been. Sure, there have been ups and downs but I am married, with three really great kids (most days) and I wouldn't change a thing (most days, :-)).

January comes to us with lots of birthdays to celebrate, one very special one is my dearly departed grandmother whom I miss terribly. Her birthday was yesterday and she was with me in my thoughts all throughout the day. Happy bday grandmother, I love you!

Let's see what has happened in the new year? Well, Bob is getting better. I know that we have all tried to loose weight at some point and look for low calorie or low-fat foods, which I might add, that you can find everywhere and truth be known, they are probably worse for you than the original good stuff if you truly look at the ingredients. With Bob's high BP, I have been on a quest to not only cook healthy foods for the fam but to also cook low sodium. Have you ever tried to cook low sodium? Man oh man, I know how new products get started now because if I had extra money in the bank, I would start a new food line with low sodium in it. These type of products are virtually non-existent. EVERYTHING is loaded with salt and if it is low in salt, they have increased the potassium so high that it becomes dangerous as well. Salt is one of the #1 preservatives and it it's frozen, canned or pre-packaged, it's loaded, check the labels for yourself, I was astonished! So, now, I have been cooking from scratch virtually every day using fresh veggies, lots of fruit and whole grain items that are good for you. Bob has dropped 7-8 lbs already and I know I have lost some but not sure how much just from changing our eating patterns and cutting out that darn salt! Who knew????

The kids went back to school today, thank goodness! Cabin fever was settling in, especially with all this rain we've been getting. For an area that our average rain fall is 5 inches per year, to get it all at once, well, let's say, I have pond in my backyard right now. Add some fish and I'd be set. Seriously, I am not complaining as we surely needed it and it has been a welcome sight but Lord, if you could spread it out some, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Natives are getting restless and wanting to eat so I've gotta run.
~K