Our little scare today

I told you that Spirit ended up sick. I stayed home from work with both boys and sent Lady Bug on to school (preschool). I headed to work about 1:00 when Mr. Man was able to come home and be with the kids. When I left Spirit was asleep on the couch where he had been most of the day. Lefty was feeling better so when I left he was at the table eating soup - his first meal in about 3 days.

About 3:00 I got a call from Mr. Man at my office saying that Spirit had woken up with a 104.3 fever. I told him to do a cool bath and some Tylenol. He called back a short time later and he was very concerned saying he didn't think the fever was coming down at all. So I called the doctor and they wanted us in immediately. They told me to have Mr. Man give Spirit a cool shower and then put shorts on him and no shirt so he would cool down and get him in there.

At the doctor's office they decided to swab him for strep and for the swine flu. He still had a fever while he was there. No strep. No flu. Thank God!!! It turns out it is just a virus that we need to let run it's course.

This evening his temperature has not been as high, but won't drop below 101, even with the Tylenol or Ibuprofen. So I know he'll be home from school again tomorrow, but I hope he gets well soon. Lefty was sick for 5 days and if Spirit follows that routine we are in for another 3 or 4 days. Great.

Time to bleach the house

Yesterday afternoon Spirit came home from school complaining he didn't feel well, after taking his temperature we realized he too is sick! He has a high fever, coughing, sneezing, runny nose. Woke up this morning the same way.

Lefty is feeling better, not 100% though. He still had fever last night, but this morning he is fever-free but still complaining of a sore throat and he is still coughing.

Both boys are home from school today and I am home from work. I think I will have to go in to the office later this evening. I work for an attorney and we have a huge trial coming up next week so there is lots of prep work I need to do this week.

My guess is that Lady Bug and Mr. Man are next on the list to get this nasty stuff.

Good times!

Not much to report today

Our weekend was fairly uneventful. We stayed close to home. Lady Bug went to grandma and grandpa's overnight Friday, and went camping with them. So Saturday morning while Mr. Man worked, the boys and I went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which was super cute, I highly recommend it.

Yesterday our neighbor kid (we'll call him "D") was out front of his house playing. His bike was laying in the driveway and some kid came up to him and asked if he could ride his bike. At first D said no. The kid just kept begging so finally D said ok. The kid hops on and never came back. D went inside and told his parents what happened, they started looking for the kid but didn't find him. So D's dad says to me when he's telling me the story, "I sure hope D learned his lesson." I asked what lesson that is? Because, I mean seriously, is the lesson not to trust anyone? or is the lesson not to be nice to anyone? What is the lesson here? As soon as I said this, D's dad said "hmmm, good point. I don't know what lesson I want him to learn." D said he didn't even know the kid, had never seen him before. Makes me sad that we live in this kind of world.

Lefty is at home sick today. Has a fever, coughing, running nose and an upset stomach. NICE. Spirit woke up this morning saying his throat kinda hurt. I have feeling this is going to run through our house...

Friday Recipe - Apple Cider Cake

I saw this recipe here about a year ago and I bookmarked it. I finally got around to making it a couple weeks ago. It is SUPERB! It is a light, spice cake with a lemony glaze. It is a pretty cake too! I have made it twice now.

You can click over and see her wonderful pictures and find the recipe for it there too, or I have copied it here (but mine doesn't show all the pretty pictures like hers does!)

The thing I liked about this cake is that it is easy and it also looks very pretty!


Apple Cider Cake
INGREDIENTS:

Cake--
18.25 oz plain yellow cake mix
3.5 oz vanilla instant pudding (dry)
4 large eggs
1 cup apple cider
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Glaze--
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tbsp apple cider
1/2 tsp lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease & flour in a bundt pan. Place cake mix, pudding, eggs, apple cider, oil, cinnamon & cloves in mixing bowl. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Scrape bowl and beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake 42-48 minutes (or until done). Let cool in the pan for 20 minutes.

Now for the glaze, heat confectioners sugar, cider and lemon zest in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until mixture is smooth.

Take cake out of pan and place it on your serving plate and immediately pour glaze over the cake. Be sure that the cake and glaze is still warm so that it soaks down into the cake.

The signs of Autumn

I enjoy spring with all the newness of life popping up.

I enjoy summer for the long nights and all the outdoor activities you can do.

I enjoy winter for the times we get to sit by the fire in our sweats and fuzzy slippers watching snow fall outside.

But my favorite time of year is Autumn. It always has been, even when I was a kid.

As summer officially ended (on Monday) and the start of fall was officially here (on Tuesday) this is what kind of weather we are having (see picture to the right). We have had cold, rainy and a little bit of snow the last few days. That isn't fall. That's winter! We jumped right from summer into winter. Booooo. Some of the pretty trees even lost all of their leaves too soon due to the snow. Maybe next week will be more fall-like and I can get some pictures of the changing leaves.

This isn't stopping me from being a little bit excited about the change in the weather! I have so many recipes to try, craft projects I can work on (for some reason working in the 100 degree weather, sweating profusely makes me hate to do crafty things too much in the summer months), I even have some home improvement things planned for this Fall. Autumn also brings Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday and it brings us closer to Christmas, another favorite holiday.

I am already working on Christmas gifts, some I am making, others I am buying and then some are a combo of both handmade and purchase. I have some great simple teacher gift ideas too. Not sure exactly what the kids will be getting yet, but I have some ideas to look into!

I love this time of year, even if it did get colder sooner than I had hoped.

**Picture courtesy of Denver Channel News 7**

Ya'll....she has a problem

My sweet little 4 year old daughter has a problem, wouldn't you agree?

This is a picture of the pile of shoes she had by the front door.

See, I have this basket by the front door for the kids to put their shoes in when they come in for the night. Mr. Man and I rarely keep our shoes in there, but once in a while we will put ours in there too. The dog has a tendency to chew shoes if they are left in the middle of the floor, but if they are in the basket she leaves them alone (go figure!). About once every 2 or 3 weeks I clean out the basket and have everyone take their pile to their bedroom closet.

When I did the clean-out this time, I had one pair of flip flops in the basket. Mr. Man had no shoes in the basket. Spirit had 2 pairs. Lefty had 2 pairs and Lady Bug had 11 pairs. THAT is a problem!

There are 11 pairs of shoes in her pile (pictured above). She had such a big pile I had to help her carry it to her closet. What is worse is that she also had plenty of shoes still in the closet! Why does a 4 year old need so many shoes? I don't know, but she wears each and every pair of shoes she owns so evidently it is a necessity! (she takes after her aunts! *wink wink*)

Take a tour of my house - Master Bedroom

I was somewhat holding off on showing this room because we are planning a tiny remodel of this room, but since we aren't financially ready to complete it I think I will showcase the room today and then do a before/after post later.

This is, of course, the room Mr. Man and I share. I love this room because it has 2 closets, one is bigger than the other. I have the smaller one, plus a dresser. Mr. Man has his larger closet (that has built in shelves), plus his bedside table.

The bed we have was Mr. Man's before we got married. The dresser I use was once Lady Bug's. The bench you see was made by Mr. Man for our wedding. The bedside table was mine before we got married. So nothing in here is a set and nothing matches.

This room does not have a "master bathroom", but we have a door off our room that leads to the main bathroom which is ok. Mr. Man and Spirit use the downstairs bathroom and the other two kids and I use the upstairs bathroom. It works out nicely for us.

When we moved in there were mint green curtains over the windows....ick. So we took those down and are adding some valances. Here is a picture of the curtains.

Here is what the room looks like today (messes and laundry piled up and all....I guess I could have cleaned up a little before I took the pictures. Oops.):


Other rooms in the house tour:
Living Room
Kitchen
Sunroom
Family Room
Laundry room/Bathroom
Spirit's Room
Lefty's Room
Lady Bug's Room

Weekend Review

Our weekend went like this:

After dinner on Friday Lefty, Lady Bug and I ran some errands, one of which was the grocery store, while Mr. Man and Spirit drilled holes in tiles (I'll explain more on that in a minute). After we got home and unloaded everything, I popped some popcorn and the kids found a movie to watch. We rolled out sleeping bags and got them settled in to watch the movie.

Saturday morning Spirit and Mr. Man left the house about 7:00 am to go run a 5k to raise money for Alzheimer's. I cleaned house in preparation of a craft party I was having at my house at 1:00 pm. Spirit got home about 9:30 and then Mr. Man had to go to work. The kids and I ate breakfast and then finished cleaning up the house.

People started showing up about 12:30. Some of the women brought snacks and I made some snacky foods. We had a great time! Do you think I thought to take pictures? Of course not... not until everyone was gone! Oh well. We made a clock using a 12x12 floor tile, some vinyl and a clock mechanism (click here to see a picture of it)! It turned out very cool and it was a lot of fun! We ate, we crafted, we ate some more, we gabbed, we laughed and then ate again! There ended up being about 9 or 10 of us total - it was a good mixed crowd, some crafty, some not crafty at all and then some middle of the road girls. This craft was easy enough for everyone! The purpose was to sort of get a jump on some Christmas gifts. We may or may not end up doing another one in October, we'll see. Some expressed an interest in it so we'll see!

Sunday, Spirit and I spent 3 hours cleaning his room. We ran to Walmart and picked up a couple under bed organizers and a bed side table, both on clearance! WOOT! I was very proud of my pack rat - he threw stuff away! YAY!!! He made me laugh a few times because he would say, "Why in the world did I save this?" While we cleaned Lefty and Lady Bug played games for a little while, then they pulled out one of Lefty's train sets and played that together. We experienced some cooler weather yesterday so it was a good day to stay indoors!

We are experiencing rain and wind today so I am thinking tonight I am making us potato soup for dinner.... yum!!!

The latest in princess fashion

My sister, the one I've talked about before who is an awesome seamstress, must have seen pictures on this blog of my dear daughter squeezing herself into the princess dress that my sis made her almost 2 years ago and so she sent Lady Bug a new princess gown. It is gorgeous. The previous princess dress was killer too. My sister doesn't make anything that isn't gorgeous (or at least that I know about!)


She wanted to wear this dress to the grocery store, to the birthday party she went to (which was at a pool! so momma said NO!) and she even gave up going to the park with her brothers and her dad so that she wouldn't have to take the dress off! Yea, I'd say she is in love with the new dress!

Friday Recipe - Potato Soup (Updated)

**UPDATED**

As the days are starting to get a little cooler, I love to make soups and warm dishes for dinner, leaving behind the salads we've been eating on the hotter days.

This is a recipe for Potato Soup that I got from my niece and have been making it for about 10 or 12 years now. It is fairly simple to throw together and tastes wonderful. It is exceptionally good with some fresh, warm bread or rolls, but crackers are also good.

Potato Soup
INGREDIENTS:
3-4 medium sized potatoes, cubed
1 medium onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 carrot cut into round disks
1 lb Polska Kielbasa (smoked sausage)

Place potatoes, onion, celery and carrot in a pot with just enough water to cover them. Cook on medium-high until potatoes are soft. **UPDATED TO ADD: Do not drain cooking liquid from potatoes.**

Meanwhile, make white sauce by melting 1/2 c plus 1 Tbls butter in a saucepan. Add scant cup of flour. Mix well, add 1/2 tsp salt and 3 c milk. Cook until thick, stirring often. Add to potato mixture.

Cut sausage into 1/2" lengths and add potatoes. Heat through. Stir often over medium heat. Watch closely as this will burn quickly. Thin with milk if soup is too thick.

Also check out my Baked Potato Soup recipe by clicking here.

SENSE-sational Swap

My family participated in a swap that Rainy Day In May hosted. We got our package in the mail a week or so ago and the kids had SO much fun tearing into it. Seriously, the excitement matched that of Christmas morning! The swap package was to include something for the five senses (see, smell, touch, taste and hear).

The kids were tearing into things so quickly I didn't get a chance to photograph, and quite possibly didn't get a chance to SEE, everything but I think we got (Please forgive me if there is something I missed...):

*4 packs of popcorn and a 4-pack of popcorn toppers (cheese, nacho cheese, sour cream and onion and bacon cheddar)
*Skittles
*Each kid was sent a cool rubber ball with these cool "floating" things inside of it!
*Scented stickers (a huge hit with all the kids but especially Lady Bug....she begged her brothers to let her keep ALL the stickers.... I believe that one is still in negotiations!)
*Each kid got a set of the coolest scented pencils. I mean these things are SO cool. I wanted to keep them for myself, but clearly they were not for me.
*Play-Doh
*A homemade CD with a fun handmade cover
*I-Spy game

Sooooooo, the night we got the package, after dinner, we promptly popped popcorn and taste-tested the popcorn flavorings/toppings, ate some Skittles and played the game. Lady Bug snatched up the CD and immediately put it in her room... little stinker!

This was such a fun swap to participate in and it was a family swap so my kids and I worked hard putting our package together (I love activities we can do together as a family)....Mr. Man was so busy all summer he had very little input into our package, but he was with us in spirit!

I am back among the living!

I finally feel well enough to move off the couch! {Do you hear the Hallelujah Chorus playing?}

I woke up ready for the day and I have been active and everything! It feels good. I still have a runny nose and am sneezing a little but the fever and aches are all gone! Not to mention I have energy again. YAY!! For the last 3 days just moving off the couch to go to the bathroom took all my energy!

The boys were so relieved that I was up and about today, because for the last two days we had the boys just eat hot lunch at school and last night Spirit asked me if I thought I'd feel good enough to make him a home lunch today.

I got up at 6:00 and made my coffee and then started packing lunches for everyone. Then I started working on laundry that hasn't been done since Saturday. Boy oh boy does it feel good to be among the living again! I'm trying not to overdo it but it just feels so good to moving around again!

Now I am off to catch up on some bloggy business!

Sick-o update

So I am still on the couch sick, in fact I slept on the couch last night. My poor husband had to take on all the "family" responsibilities by himself last night and of course it was one "those" nights.

First off, he had to work a little late so he ended up rushing and rushing to get Lady Bug from school - she has to be picked up by 5:30. Then he rushed over to get the boys from the after school program they go to. All the while I was asleep on the couch.

Then when Mr. Man decided to make some dinner, he discovered that even though I was telling him I had all the ingredients for tuna noodle casserole, I actually did not. I had NO tuna. Whoops. I am blaming the cold meds I was on. So off to the store he went, leaving the kids at home with the mom who slept on the couch the entire time he was gone. I am guessing they all survived! Hee hee!

I attempted to join the fam for dinner, but didn't make it long. Then I headed to bed and I think was back asleep by 7:30. After I was in bed, even though I was in and out of sleep I overheard some things that made me appreciate my husband even more than I already do! He gave the boys showers, and they are old enough to take showers on their own, but without parental prodding they will stay in there until the hot water runs out. Since Mr. Man was cleaning up the dinner dishes he wasn't able to stay on top of the boys so they ended up staying in a little long. Each boy took a separate shower and between the two of them they almost used all the hot water, leaving very little hot water for Lady Bug's bath. But he was able to get enough water for her, UNTIL I hear "Daaaaaaaad!" Then Mr. Man went in to the bathroom and I hear him ask her why she pooped in the tub. Her response? "I tooted and all that poop came out too!" So he cleaned the tub and then washed her off in a quick shower (no doubt a somewhat cool shower!)

What a good guy he is, he never got upset or lost patience. As a mom, it is so hard to just sit back and let someone else do the work, but I seriously could not get off the couch! All day...when I was awake anyway...I kept thinking about the chores I needed to get done. None of those chores got done and I don't think they will get done today either.

I moved back to the couch at 10:30 when Mr. Man came to bed. I knew I could not sleep with him because I would be blowing my nose and coughing all night. I still have a fever today, runny/stuffy nose, lots of sneezing and coughing and the best part my head feels like it could explode! I hate being sick!

Kleenex, the couch and my laptop -- the joys of being sick!

I am sick ya'll! I got sick this weekend with runny nose, sneezing, aches, coughing and a sore throat. I did a lot of sleeping yesterday and today I am home from work camped out on the couch with the laptop. I am about to take a nap, but though I would update the blog.

This past weekend was a good weekend for everyone, but me since I was sick. Saturday the boys hung out around the house playing video games, riding bikes and building with legos. Lady Bug had a birthday party at a pool nearby. Then on Sunday for grandparents day we went to church with my in-laws and then ate lunch with them. We got home about 2 and I passed out as soon as we got home. I just couldn't stay up any longer!

This coming weekend I am hosting a craft day with some girls. I need to get better so I can have fun at the party! I have some yummy food planned and hopefully the day will be a lot of fun for everyone. Spirit and Mr. Man are signed up to run a 5k on Saturday to raise money for Alzheimers. So I am looking forward to the coming weekend plans, I am just hoping I feel better soon so I can enjoy the fun!

Friday!!

I know I have been really bad at updating this blog lately. I have lots of things to post about but I'm having a hard time finding time to get them into this blog! Work has been crazy, the kids getting back into routine with school and Mr. Man's work schedule changing a bit has just made it hard to get on here! But things should be slowing down a little and I can start putting stuff on here again.

I have a TON of pictures that need downloaded so I can share them with you guys and I am hoping to work on downloading those today.

I tried a new recipe this week that I was sure was gonna be a big hit..... it wasn't as good as I had hoped so I am not sharing it with you today and I don't have any new ones to share right now either. So once again, there is no recipe today.

Don't give up on me yet....I should be back next week for sure! I have so many blogs to catch up on too! I notice everyone else has been busy posting so there is lots to read!

Have a great weekend and I will get those pictures downloaded and start posting again on here!

I love long weekends

Last week was a busy one in our house. Mr. Man had 2 meetings that lasted late into the evenings last week, then one evening he was gone until midnight at a pre-season football game. My work was crazy last week, although I didn't have to work late any day, but all-in-all I was certainly ready for the weekend!

A friend of ours took Lefty on Saturday to Chuck E Cheese (better her than me!) and on Sunday afternoon a different friend of ours took the kids with her to the mountains for the afternoon and they got home about 10:00 pm. So while they were gone on Sunday Mr. Man and I ran some errands, and we looked at some landscaping stuff trying to decide what to do in both our front and back yards.

Then first thing Monday morning we hit the ground running - Mr. Man and Spirit went to work in the front and pulled up 4 dying/dead bushes from the front of the house while I cleaned inside. I mopped floors, changed sheets, did laundry, scrubbed the front door down and wiped down walls in the house from all the dirty fingerprints.

We haven't quite decided what to replace the bushes with but it looks ok for now. We can do some more research on what will grow well. We live in this dry Colorado with crappy soil, it is sometimes hard to get things to grow well here. I think I will post before and after pictures tomorrow as part of my "Home Tour".

Yesterday is the anniversary of the day I met my husband. I was telling the story yesterday to someone and he said I didn't tell the story right so I am here to tell the story - the RIGHT way ... I had been attending church with Mr. Man's parents a short time. They run a bible college and every year on Labor day they have "Opening School Picnic" so I had made arrangements with one of the girls at the church (who was also a co-worker of mine and she was the reason I was going to that church) to pick her up at her house and we would go to the picnic together. She called me just before I was leaving to get her and said "I have this guy working on my deck and he got a late start so I won't be ready to go for about another 45 minutes" So I show up 45 minutes later and the guy - who turns out to be Mr. Man - is still not done with her deck. He was laying some carpet on her deck for her and I watched in amazement at his work. How he would eyeball where he would need to cut, he'd cut and it would be PERFECT!! It was so cool how he did that! BUT I was irritated that this guy was holding me up. I thought, "How rude! We have plans buddy. Finish up so we can go!" So we waited and waited while he finished. Finally he was done and we headed out. My friend finally told me that he was the son of the preacher of the church we were going to. So I asked if he was going to the picnic and he said probably not, it wasn't his thing. So when my friend and I showed up - there he was. He told me later that for him it was "Love at first sight" and he knew he had to go to the picnic! I was a little more cautious about him! About a week later he called the office to talk to my friend, but unfortunately she was out of town because her mom was in the hospital. When I told him that he had a very concerned tone which I thought was so sweet. After we talked for a couple minutes he told me the reason he was calling her was to see if she wanted to go downtown for a football game, but since she wasn't around would I be interested in going. It snowballed from there and we started doing more and more things together. He was so sweet and always doing such nice things for me. For instance, one day he called me at work and asked me to meet him at this park after work that kinda overlooks the city. It is really a neat place to go walk around. When I showed up he had flowers for me and then when we were walking around he picked some more flowers for me. {awwwww!} We dated for 2 years before getting married. We will be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary this coming January.

Over all we had a great weekend, not too busy but busy enough that I feel like we got some stuff accomplished!

Friday Recipe - Homemade Caramel Corn

We like to have movie night in our house and the kids roll out their sleeping bags and grab their pillows. Then I make popcorn with butter and salt and then I also make some caramel corn too.

For this caramel corn recipe I have combined two different recipes over the years to come up with this one and we really like it.

It is pretty easy and tastes yummy!

Caramel Corn
INGREDIENTS:
approximately 7 c of popped popcorn (take the time to remove any unpopped kernals)
3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c butter
3 Tbsp light corn syrup
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp vanilla

Put butter in a saucepan and melt over low heat. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Cook until bubbling. After it starts to bubble let it cook for 5 minutes without stirring. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla. Pour over popcorn and mix well, covering every piece of popcorn. Spread onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes at 300 degree oven. Let cool slightly and then break apart.

Yoga

The other night Mr. Man had gone to a class so I fed the kids and got everyone ready for bed, then I was in my room folding some laundry.

Lefty: (hollering from his bed) "Mooooom"

Me: (hollering back from my room) "What?"

No further response. A minute or two goes by and I hear:

Lefty: "mooommm?"

Me: "What?"

No response from Lefty. Then a minute goes by and he says again:

Lefty: "MOM?!"

Me: (hollering in a slightly angry voice from my room) "WHAT? I have said what 3 times. What do you need?"

A slight pause.

Lefty: "ummmm, can you come here for a second?"

So I go in his room, I wasn't angry at this point, but simply said "What do you need?"

Lefty: "My teacher told me that if we are really frustrated we should do Yoga breathing. So, Mom, you breathe in through your nose, making your tummy tight. Count to three and then let it out through your mouth. Like this, watch mom."

Demonstration of said Yoga breathing technique.

Me: "That is a really good idea. Is that what you called me in here for?"

Lefty: "Well, no but you sounded REALLY frustrated."

Touche'!!

Take a tour of my house - Lady Bug's room

Lady Bug's room was pretty much ready to go when we moved in. It has wallpaper on one wall that I would eventually like to remove and paint the wall, but that will probably be another year or so before I get to that room. There are plenty of other rooms that need painted first!

Lady Bug is my all girl, pink-lovin, doll-lovin, book loving girl! She loves to read and loves to buy books at the store. After she brushes her teeth and goes potty at night I usually read a book or two to her and then she is allowed to read a few books to herself. I love to stand outside the door and listen to her make up the story as she goes along!

Here is a picture taken from the doorway to Lady Bug's very pink room

This picture is taken from the bed looking towards the door

This picture is taken from the closet area (which is at the end of her bed basically) looking towards her armoire. The corner shelves are built in and came with the house!

Other rooms in my house tour:

Living Room

Kitchen

Sunroom

Family Room

Laundry Room

Spirit's Room

Lefty's Room