See ya in 2 weeks!

Backpack packed, check. House cleaned, check. Groceries in the pantry, check. Kids bathed and ready for the week, check. Calendars printed, schedules arranged, check. Time to leave for two weeks on a grand adventure with my son! Very exciting.

Happy birthday to my baby Christian, turning 5 on 8/2 and my oldest Xander, turning 14 on 8/4 - I love you both! Hannah you take good care of the the boys while I'm gone! I love you. Mwah!

A special happy birthday to my mom who has a birthday on August 6th that I won't be home for as well. I love you and will call you when I return! Have a wonderful day!!!

I'll post again when we get back. Much love to everyone.

Tasty Tuesday - Apple Enchiladas

Apple Enchiladas
Super easy and DELISH!
A family favorite and I always double or even triple the recipe.

1 21 oz. Can Apple Pie Fruit Filling
6 8 in Tortillas
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/3 cup Butter
½ cup Sugar
½ cup Firmly Pack Brown Sugar
½ Cup Water

1. Spoon fruit filling evenly down center of each tortilla; sprinkle evenly with cinnamon. Roll up, place seam side down in a lightly buttered 2 qt. Baking dish.
2. Bring butter and next 3 ingredients to a boil in a medium saucepan; reduce heat and simmer, stirring constantly for 3 minutes. Pour sauce over enchiladas; let stand for 30 minutes.
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
4. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

AWESOME DEALS!

(FB users, click "View Original Post" to see the full article in my blog!)


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Made with love...

I am so behind in my posting that I totally forgot that I had this one saved in my drafts (since December) and never posted it because I kept forgetting to add the photos, this is a good one, many mom's will understand and quite possibly relate ....

My children have all had a "lovey" to keep them comfy at night or during times of need. As most parents know, when that lovey disappears you will move heaven and Earth to find it. Christian and I went to Michael's shopping this past week and he asked if he could bring his boppy in the car, my first mistake, and I said "sure". We get there and he asks if he can bring it in the store, second mistake, and of course I say "sure" because I am feeling like he will be responsible. Between the time of entering and exiting I have long since lost thought of this beloved blanket from my mind. Fast forward 8 hours to bedtime when it is no where to be found. Michael's was still open so I sent Bob on a wild goose chase to no avail. Not content that he looked "like I would have looked ;)", I proceed to go back to Michael's so that I could be the hero when I found it. Unfortunately, I came home empty handed and felt more like a sap than a hero. So we comforted Christian, got him to sleep and assured him that tomorrow we would tear the house apart and go back to Michael's looking for this boppy.

This boppy is a well loved blanket that was made special for him by our dear friend and old Oregon neighbor, Auntie Diane. She had monogrammed it with his birthdate and name and this boppy never left Christian's side, think Linus from Peanuts. Sometimes this thing got washed more than once a day when he was sick or it had been drug through the dirt and other times I just gave in and let it be this gross, nasty embarrassment of a lovey that I was horrified for any other mother to see although I knew somewhere in their minds they would understand and had been there too. I just couldn't keep up with all the "loving" he gave this thing. So to have lost it meant that Christian lost a piece of his soul.

Notice all the "loving" he gave this thing? He would twirl the corners of the quilt around his fingers until finally the corners are so shredded and it had been washed so many times that all the batting came completely out of the quilt, it is now merely 2 pieces of old, tattered fabric barely held together. He treats it very gingerly these days!

As any mother would I woke up and began the boppy hunt again to no avail long before any of the kids woke up for school. I even stopped homeless people around the shopping complex to look into their carts as someone had told me that they had just seen it at the store on the bench up front (and even described it to me to a T and said that it was "just here"). They also told me that they had also seen a homeless man loitering right outside the store within minutes of seeing it. I was ready with cash in hand to beg, borrow or steal this boppy back from anyone that may have taken it from Michael's. The employees had seen it, other people from the previous shift had seen it and everyone was sure that it was still there. Again to no avail, no one homeless or otherwise had it in their possession.

Now I am mad, crazy woman because my son lost a piece of his soul. I send him on his way to preschool and everyone off to their respective places and make a mad dash to the fabric store. Who knew that you could buy fabric, cut perfect squares and assemble and sew a full quilt in less than 10 hours? That's exactly what I did. There was no way my son was going to bed without a "lovey" that night. I worked in a mad dash to get this completed and mind you I can sew however I have NEVER made a quilt before nor had it ever crossed my mind to make one but I did.

New quilt. Every intersection is hand knotted and it is nice and snuggly. He calls it his "new boppy", not quite the same as his original but he "tried" to love it just as much to make me happy since he knew I made it with lots of "mommy love"!

At 8:30pm when it came time to say prayers, I snipped the last thread, said a prayer when I tied the last quilting knot and already washed and dried it. I handed my babe a fresh warm out of the dryer brand new quilt. Whew, disaster averted!

During all this mayhem, I emailed Auntie Diane to beg her for scraps of the same fabric she had made the first one from however I just couldn't wait the weeks it would take to get it and had to take matters into my own hands. Much to my delight she made him another one that arrived as a surprise a few weeks later. So now he has THREE boppies. The one I made, the replacement on Diane made and lo and behold his original one.

New Auntie Diane quilt! Notice how bright the colors are? Believe it or not, this is the same fabric the original was mde from.

Where was this original boppy? Two days later, Hannah was cleaning out from under her bed and guess what she found? His boppy. The strange thing is, is that Bob and I had both looked under there, the Michael's store manager had personally found it and put it on the bench waiting for the owner to return, other people had spotted it and we could not find it anywhere for 2 days of constant searching. After lots of prayers, I am a believer that no one "person" put that boppy back in our hands, it was a true gift as I am telling you it was NOT under her bed previously!

After all the hooplah of making the quilt, Hannah and Xander decided that they too needed homemade quilts. Here is Hannah's and I have yet to make Xander's but I have all the fabric and Xander has decided that he wants a big X from corner to corner with all the other colors surrounding it. So here is my new claim to fame and I liked making them so much that you too, may find a "Kimberly Quilt" in your mailbox someday as a special gift made with love!

Hannah's new quilt I made for her. Notice the "H" in the center? She picked out the colors and fabrics. I think it turned out nice.

So the countdown begins...

"We're leavin' on a trai-ain...." instead of a jet plane. Next Sunday Xander and I leave Fullerton on an Amtrak 24 hour train ride headed for Raton, NM where we will then drive another 45 minutes to Cimmaron, NM to "base camp" at Philmont Boy Scout Ranch. Philmont is the pinnacle of scouting excellence and offers great adventures like the 10 day 54 mile trek that we headed on beginning Wed. July 29 after we get checked in, weighed in, the rangers go through our backpacks with a fine tooth comb and we get the green light to go.

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HighAdventure/Philmont/Camping/ExpeditionsandTrekItineraries.aspx

To get to experience Philmont means that a scouting troop has put in an application and your "lottery" gets drawn. Our troops last opportunity to go was in 2004 so when the opportunity presented itself, we jumped on it. I am sure that you are wondering WHY I am going on a boy scout backpacking trip instead of Bob, the dad, the male, the teenage boy's compadre? Well, 2 reasons, Bob cannot take that much time off work and plain and simple, I personally wanted to go! Bob and I have been on 2 10-day backpacking trips to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming (both prior to our 2 additional children) and I wanted to treat myself to an early 40th birthday present that says that life "begins at 40", it doesn't end and I am still capable of such treks! Besides, Xander and I do so much outdoors stuff together that he is excited I am going and I love being around all the other scouts, they are quite funny and like to have a good time. There is one other mom going on our 12 person crew so I won't be the lone female :)!

What is Philmont? Philmont Ranch used to belong to the oil tycoon Waite Phillips (of Phillips Petroleum), here is a link to another scout troop that has great information on where we are going and how the boy scouts actually got the land. http://www.troop6bsa.org/philmont_info.htm

Our trek starts out right at 7k ft and tops out at almost 12k ft before descending again. Check out the map if you want to see where we will be: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/Itinerary4Map.pdf Every day either along the trek or once we get to our next camp, we will be treated to fun activities. Some of the activities we will experience are: Archery, Black Powder Rifle, Blacksmithing, Campfires, Cantina (unfortunately not stocked with margaritas I am sure), Chuck Wagon Dinner, Fly Fishing, Gold Mining and Panning, Homesteading, Horse Rides, Jicarilla Apache Life, Rock Climbing, Search and rescue, Waite Phillips Lodge Tours, Tooth of Time and more. So you can see, in addition to backpacking, we also have events at every stop along the way. Should be fun if I am not too tired by the time we get to our destinations to fully appreciate it, lol!

So, I am sure some of you are wondering if we have to carry all our own stuff and YES, we have to carry EVERYTHING, tents, sleeping bags, pads, clothing, food, first aid, toiletries, etc. No, there are no bathrooms, we are in the backcountry folks and you gotta use what God put out there for you. No, we don't have to carry our poop out, thank goodness, but we do have to carry everything else out so here's to hoping that I scheduled mother nature appropriately to arrive outside of this trip otherwise I'll be having more fun than a human being should be allowed, yippee skippy! We have to filter and carry our own water and they drop food to use every 3-4 days. I am quite positive that I'll lose more than a few lbs on the backpacking diet of oatmeal, bagged chicken and tuna (yuk - call me a food snob :) but when you are hungry you'll eat anything), crackers and whatever other delightful morsels they send our way. They do cook for us one night so all won't be lost and I hear that the dutch oven peach cobbler they make is the absolute best, I can't wait!

All in all, we are very excited. I won't have any contact with the outside world for about 12-13 days. Bob will be getting GPS coordinate updates that will be sent out from our SPOT (google it - every avid backpacker and outdoor enthusiast should carry one) we will be carrying, I will have him post them here so you can at least look up in the Google maps where we are in the world.

I'll be posting many photos upon our return (and my recovery :)). Stay tuned....

TGIF!

I tried to find time to update every day this week but alas it is now Friday and I am just "gettin' round to it"! The week was nice, the usual... boy scouts, gymnastic, summer math camp for Hannah and summer sleepovers for the kids with friends. Life is good!

The only hiccup was when I walked into the garage Wednesday morning to discover our doormat all wet. Seems that our hot water heater had been leaking for some time and had finally decided to let us know about it. 24 hours later, new hot water heater installed, all was good again, so again, not too bad and a good week indeed!

Tonight Bob and I are headed out for a long overdue date night. I think we are headed down to the harbor in search of a relaxing ocean view and a nice plate of fresh grilled fish and veggies. Ahhhh, we live a great life, have the best weather in the world and still find time to enjoy each other after almost 13 years!

It's been a great summer so far, here are some random photos from the summer. Tell us all about your summer, we'd love to hear from you! Be sure to leave us a comment.

Sara, Christina, Skyler, Hannah and Emma - June 2009

I LOVE ModPodge - the cute frames that the girls made to commerate their summer backyard "Girls Night Out" campout. They were darling!!

Leave me ALONE! - Kern River Whitewater Rafting Trip June 21, 2009

Now, I am mad!

I'm gonna get you now! ;) See what happens when you make me mad!

A little monkey business at the San Diego Zoo with dad!

Cub Scout Day Camp on Camp Pendleton - June 2009
Wrist Rocket Range