Head above water

I sit here and i think about all the things that need to be finished.. Well you know what? I think I am READY to take it all on. For a while I think I lost my focus. I finally am coming to terms with the fact that I am not super woman, and rather than blowing everything off, I will do what I can. I will do what I enjoy. I will do what I feel needs to be done. Yes! Go Me!

Alright, so the big thing that i worked on during Christmas, was something very special, and very unforgettable for not only myself, but a few very special people as well. A soldier that is friends with my husband, and his wife a friend of mine, got injured while deployed. He is doing a lot better now, but he was pretty bad. Another friend of mine and I gathered donations, and made it a fantastic Christmas for them. I will do another post on it when I have more time, but it was awesome! Truly a great Christmas.

My little girl will be three months old tomorrow! Very hard to believe! It seems just yesterday she was born. On the up side of things, we are more than half way through this deployment. I keep telling myself I can do this. Although time is going fast, it also feels slow. I have so many emotions running through me when I think about it. I consider myself a very strong woman when it comes to deployment, but dang, I think the sexual frustration is coming out, because I seem to have my mind in the gutter more than half the time, HA!

I've been cooking again. It feels great. Not that I wasn't cooking before, but I was doing the same things all of the time, just for the convenience. Now I'm back to baking, and making more foods I haven't made since Alan left. Maybe it also has to do with the fact that I'm trying to get in shape before he gets back home again. Who knows?

A friendship that was broken for a while, has been mended, and I have to say, I am VERY thankful for that. There was a cease of communication for a few months because of some disagreements between myself and a mutual friend, and she had been caught in the middle. Well, we've begun our friendship again, and it is so nice to have it back. Someone whom you feel at home with no matter what could happen. Needless to say, we are back as friends, as if nothing had ever happened.

Well that is all I have for now, but I shall be posting more pictures soon. Talk to you very soon!

It's been a while

So I took a little break, as I was trying to get into a routine of being alone with my three year old son, and my now almost two month old daughter. I hope you all will forgive me! So let's catch up my friends! The past few weeks I have been cleaning constantly, as any mother knows, it's a constant. Christmas shopping. And a lot of it. Okay, I will dish more on my post after Christmas about my fantastic buys. (trust me, you will LOVE the POST CHRISTMAS one, so please stay tuned) What is everyone doing for gifts? Any good homemade ones?

My gifts for my friends are all homemade. A smore's kit, Mexican hot chocolate, and cookies! I hope they all enjoy it! I still need to finish my Christmas Cards! that just reminded me! However I did make Rudolph's with the kids :)

Also, what kind of Christmas would it be with out the cookies? I've been making all sorts of cookies. So far I've got sugar cookies, oatmeal cranberry chocolate cookies, Hawaiian wedding cakes, eggnog tea cookies, double chocolate coconut cookies, and crispy chocolate chip cookies!


 I've been digging through my family recipes and figuring out what I am going to contribute to the Christmas dinner my friend and I are making. So far, I am bringing turkey, green bean casserole, stuffing, bacon wrapped dates stuffed with chevre, carrot souffle, cranberry sauce, cream puff tree! What a grand dinner we will have! 
As I was digging for my recipes, I found a couple pie recipes, I thought I would share for any of you making pies for Christmas!              

                                        
    
A sweeter Pie crust for Two double crust pies, or four single crust pies

Ingredients

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups shortening
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water
• 
  
• Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, shortening, sugar, and salt. Blend together with a pastry cutter until crumbly.
2. In a small bowl, mix egg with water. Blend into flour mixture. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

For a basic Pie crust for one double crust pie or two single crusts

2 Cups of flour

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cups shortening

1/3 cup ice water

mix flour and salt together, cut in shortening, sprinkle water and blend with hands till dough forms. use as needed

For Cherry Pie

2 cups cherries *take out the seeds!

1 Cup of juice

1/8 teaspoon almond extract

1 Cup of sugar

2 Tablesppons cornstarch

butter

put cherries in crust, mix all other ingredients, except butter, together. Pour over the cherries. dot with butter. Put top crust on, make slits in top. Bake  at 450 for 10 minutes, then at 350 for 30 minutes. When it comes out, brush top with melted butter! 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Pie

pre baked pie shell

3 Tablespoons butter

1/4 Cup conrstarch

3/4 Cup sugar

2Tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Cups

2 egg yolks

Mix egg yolks and sugar. melt butter in saucepan. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Add dry ingredients to butter in saucpan. Slowly add milk, and cook till boiling. Add the eggs, cook slightly, add vanilla. pour into baked pie shell and chill.

Apple Pie

2/3  Cup of sugar

Dash Salt

1/2 teaspoon

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

2 teaspoons lemon juice

6 cups peeled thinly sliced cooking apples

2 tablespoons butter

Mix sugar with salt, cinnamon, flour, lemon rind and juice and combine with apples. Line 9 inch piepan with pie crust and fill with apple mixture. Dot with butter. Top with crust and crimp edges. Brush top with milk. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes, then at 375 45 minutes, or until apples are tender. sprinkle with sugar after baking if desired.

There you go, hope you all enjoy!

Birthday party today!

Alright, so Keagan's birthday party was today! It was so much fun! His daddy sent him a Harley tricycle, a soccer net with ball, and spongebob bedding. Alan loves his kids, that one thing I know for a fact. I had a few friends over with their children, and we had a great time.

My sister in law came in last night. It was so stormy, I'm not sure how my mother and sister in law made it back from the airport!

I shall be working on my Christmas decorating, and putting pictures in their places the next few weeks. Alrighty, well I'm sorry this is short, but I am so tired, but I will post more tomorrow!

Goodmorning!

So I've got my Starbuck's Christmas blend coffee going. Yum! It's suppose to be a warm day, so hopefully get the kids Christmas pictures done.

I'm in the midst of redecorating my house, and I can not wait until I am finally done. Found the perfect fabric for curtains! I will post a picture soon. I'm going to list some stuff on craigslist so I can make some money to finish my house. Hopefully make some space too. Some furniture, some art, some kids stuff. You know, the stuff that adds up that you don't need. I found the perfect media console, and bookshelves for our living room, now I just need a floor lamp, put up the curtains, frame my paintings, and get some old school photographs of James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, Elvis, Humphrey Bogart, and Bettie Page. Then I shall be done. Wait, forgot, pillows too :)

That was just the living room. Next is the dining. I just need curtains, and place mats, and maybe an area rug. Oh yeah, and a chain to hang up my son's art work too.

Then we have the dining room. I'm thinking red :) Just little bits here and there. Kind of retro too. Maybe.. what do you guys think?
OK, so we have the spare room. I was considering a black and white quilt, white linen curtains, small black hutch, a nice painting too. Just for a punch of color, a mini rose bush?

My children's room, I want some storage shelves, a dresser, and new bed for my son :) everything else is done in there.

My room, I need new bedding. Get rid of the dresser, put some storage in our closet, paint, then done!
Our bathroom, I want to do a woods kind of thing in there. and just make a very sophisticated look. get a bench for in there, get some chelves for the walls.

Alright those are my ideas for now, if anyone has any suggestions, please post!

Have a great day!

A glimpse into my military life

The day started out pretty normal for me. The day before Halloween 2010. My son had slept pretty good because of our busy day of crafts for a friend's Halloween party, and a day of shopping for daddy's care packages. I wasn't feeling very energetic, so decided I'd rest my 38 week pregnant body for the day. I'd been having Braxton hicks for a long time, so didn't think too much about them. Keagan and I went on with our day, playing, and eating as normal. Later in the evening, I started having pain in my back. I was afraid that if I went to the hospital, I'd just get sent back home, like I had with my previous pregnancy. I decided to take a bath and drink water. I don't know about you, but that is what I was always told to do if I thought there may be a chance I was going into labor. Well, bath didn't help, so I decided to go for a long walk.

Yes, the pain increased. My son fell asleep in his stroller during our walk, so I went over to my friends house who happens to be my neighbor. After a conversation with her, she convinced me to leave my son for the night and go to the hospital. I walked back to my house and packed Keagan's back pack full of clothes and snacks, and went back to her house to drop it off. I tucked him into bed, he was still asleep, and then I was on my way. I drove to the hospital on post, and parked near the emergency room. I didn't want to walk super far to labor and delivery after all. I got there, and checked in, sat in the waiting room. When the nurse came and got me, she took me to an exam room. They hooked me up to all the monitors, and when the dr came to check me, I was already 5cm. Wow, guess I really was in labor! The dr said they were going to admit me. At that moment, I was excited, scared, and sad all at once. I started to tear up because I knew my husband wouldn't be able to be here with me to welcome our new child into this world.

The nurses asked me if I wanted them to help me by going and getting my bag from my car, I told them no, I could go get it. I went out to my car and got my bag that was packed with clothes, a camcorder, and laptop. I stopped in front of the entrance, called a couple people including the Rear D CO, asking him to send a Red Cross message for me. Except for, a few minutes later when I went inside, and got a text saying that Red Cross had informed him that they don't send message for labor, only for emergency or after the child is born!!! Great, now my husband will have no clue that his child is about to be born! Well, here I was, in the hospital, alone. I pulled out my laptop, put up a status on my Facebook, and a message on my husbands page. All my hopes were that he would get online and see that, and be able to talk to me. Instead my husbands friends got online, and saw it, and were doing everything they could to get a hold of him and let him know. With the luck I have, he was still in transit to get where he was suppose to be. I was admitted at 8:30 PM. After hours of sitting there with an iv in my arm, and not being able to rest because I was waiting for that little sound on my laptop to go off letting me know he was online. I was starting to lose hope. Around 1:30 AM I got my Epidural, and around 2:15 AM they broke my water. Well here it was. I was going to birth this child alone, without my husband, but my friends on Facebook were there, and my friends texting me. Well, to my surprise, at 2:30 AM, my husband gets online! Oh thank goodness!  I progressed through my labor, and enjoyed my husband's company. He had borrowed a friends computer that had video, so we got to talk and see each other. He may not have been there physically, but he was there for me mentally, and coaching me through the labor. I am so thankful for technology. He was there for me when my epidural stopped working for about an hour and a half, that I had no idea what was going on. The nurse came in and checked me and I had tears rolling down my face. Needless to say, they came in and fixed the epidural. This was at about 6 AM that it got fixed. 6:30 AM I was announcing to my husband that he had a baby girl. We got to visit as a family until about 7:30 AM. It was so nice to have that technology available to us, so that even with the distance, my husband was still able to be there with me during labor and delivery.

Kali Michelle 10/31/2010 6:33 AM 6 lbs 18 1/2 inches

My busy life :)

My son awoke me this morning saying that daddy needs to bring him home a dinosaur, a chicken, and a doggy. Really makes you wonder what goes on in an almost three year olds head when he thinks about a deployment. So incredibly sweet and innocent.

I feel so incredibly blessed to have both of my children through this deployment. They keep me busy and entertained. I'm not sure what my life would be like with out them and my husband, and I know that I'm ok with that. My life is rich in so many ways. my family, my friends, and the few people I share my love with.This thanksgiving, that is what I am thankful for.

Today my children decided to both cry at the same time, so my solution, put daddy's video of him reading 'Green Eggs and Ham'. Magically, they both calmed down, just stared and listened. Made me feel so many emotions at once. One of happiness for them to see and be calmed by him, one of sadness that he couldn't actually be there to hold and comfort them. Many more, but those stood out the most. I've noticed that with the deployment this time, I don't so much feel sorry for myself as I do for my kids and my husband. For him to miss the birth of our daughter, and to miss time with Keagan. I feel so badly for them all, it breaks my heart.

The upside is that we get to take many pictures, do a lot of crafts, and make sure daddy sees it all. I'm still in need of buying my husband a webcam and netbook so the children can see him and talk to him. That will be good.

My contractor finally showed up to do the weather stripping and fix the attic ladder. I'm so happy, hopefully it'll help my electric bill, and now I can climb into the attic without dangling on the bottom piece because it didn't touch the ground! It's only taken about 6 weeks for him to finally get it done!

Today, Keagan had to get caught up on his shots. Poor little man. He has forgotten about them now. I had to butter him up first. So we had a mommy and son date. We went to the commissary, he got cookies, and I got groceries, and my husbands vicks inhalers to send out. Then we went to the px, and got some stocking stuffers, craft stuff, husbands dip, and little decorating things. Next we had lunch and ice cream. Then, the not so good part for him, hospital time :( The hospital on post lets you just walk in for immunizations. Well, as some of you know, I've been meaning to do this for weeks. Literally. Last time I went in, they couldn't find his records, so I went home. Today I went, and after waiting for about an hour and a half, they found them! Then came the shots. Those nurses are fantastic, before I even realize she had done one, she had all three of his shots done, handed Keagan a lollipop, gave him the intranasal flu, then gave him a sticker, and we were on our way. WOW. Now I have his shot records and everything, so next week is CYS registration time. WOOHOO!

When we finally made our way back home, I already had my homemade chicken noodle soup started. The noodles were dry from last night, and the chicken with celery stocks had been boiling all day. I was making a double batch, because one of my friends had been sick, and she has three kids. I thought it would be nice to send a pot her way. Chicken noodle soup does the body good, you know? Well, my husband was online too.  So we talked as I cooked, I felt so bad, he probably wanted some of it too! Kali began crying. So now, here I am, juggling chopping vegetables, talking to Alan, and getting a newborn to calm down. The life of a mom who is married to the army, HAHA.

Finally got the soup done, dressed for the frg meeting, and ready to go. It ended up being good. Got to visit with my friend for a while, and see how big her children are getting. I still can't believe how fast the time goes with kids. They keep you so busy, you hardly notice until you pause to take a look around. One thing I have learned, is to never hope that time passes quickly, because once it goes, you'll never get it back.

Alright well, I will get off of here for now, goodnight!

Modern Handmades: Our Giving Tree

Modern Handmades: Our Giving Tree: "My grandson and I made a giving tree table decoration yesterday. We only had stickers, construction paper and markers to work with so I wasn..."

This is my mother in law. The story is about her and my soon to be three year old. You have to see what they made, he had a blast :)