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Fall is here...

I love Fall. The crispness in the air, chili in the crock pot, flannel pj pants. The colors. I love it. 

Even if breathing it makes me ill.

It's gorgeous, isn't it?

And these girls are gorgeous, too...

sick day

So I've been sick for like a month and a half. It's allergies. Not much I can do about it except move, and I don't see that happening... although the west coast is looking better all the time. My allergies turned into a sinus infection, so I'm taking antibiotics, but you all know that's not going to relieve the allergy symptoms, right?

Most annoyingly... I have a cough. I hate coughing. With a passion. I start to cough and then I just can't stop until I almost vomit. It's so professional to do this when you're in the middle of teaching. Other than the inoppurtune coughing, I really felt pretty good....

Until the coughing started getting worse at night. Now I know it was a drainage cough and when I laid down it got worse... blah blah blah. I get why I was coughing. I just wanted it to stop. And apparently the combination of antibiotic/allergy medication/flonase/mucinex was not enough to stop the coughing. 

On night 3 of coughing all night, I decided I couldn't do it anymore. Called in sick and stayed in bed all day. Called my doctor and begged for some serious cough syrup. It was the best day all week. 

Hayden enjoyed it.

Here's to getting better. 

extra credit question

I normally would not buy my teenage son a shirt that advertises a fake liquor. However, I could not resist this one. It's a book that changed my son's life... and is my favorite all time book. I simply couldn't not buy it.

Name that book...

There's no prize, but I can send you a photo of one.

Dan's birthday weekend

Coming home from work on Friday, I saw this...

That's a 7. They were just scrolling around to the 3. I think. No. Really.

Dan got two birthday dinners. The first was dinner at Carlos O'Kelly's. He doesn't like Mexican, but he'd forced us to eat at Red Robin a few weeks ago, so he'd used up his goodwill and the kids and I forced him to choose Mexican. Actually, Kiah wanted IHOP, but she got outvoted too. 

On Saturday, we were in town to get Brady and Chesney's eye checked and Dan got to pick our sandwich place for lunch. I would have gone for Jimmy John's, which not only has the best sandwiches, but also was the easiest to access, but Dan fought traffic to get to Mr. Goodcents. Penny Club for him. He loves that place. Me? Not so much. Gimme a Beach Club anytime.

 

On the drive home, it started to rain. It was wonderful. We just breathed it for a few minutes. Amazing. We needed the rain so badly... and not just to knock the allergens out of the air. This is the driest I have seen the area since we moved here 15 years ago. 

Dan's gifts... two DVDs and some mini cupcakes. The carrot cake were for him. I just couldn't stop myself from buying the chocolate chip. I love chocolate chip anything...

Nothing huge, but a fun weekend. We'll celebrate some more in a few weeks.

Kiah's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Kiah is awesome. She keeps this family together when my allergies are horrible and I have no energy to do anything. Trust me, if I was feeling myself, I would have been baking these muffins myself. 

Really, I would.

So Kiah wanted to bake some muffins last week because, you know, muffins are our thing. She wanted Pumpkin and I wanted chocolate chip, so she compromised.

Kiah's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (we couldn't find the jar we bought at the store, so she used cinnamon and nutmeg)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Kiah used my Kitchen Aid to combine the pumpkin, oil, eggs and sugar. She mixed the flour, baking powder, spices, baking soda and salt in another bowl and then added that to the wet ingredients. She was careful not to overmix because that is the key to good muffins. She added the chocolate chips last. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes (30 for large muffins). She baked 2 dozen regular size muffins, then used my big muffin pan (my favorite) for the last six. She put extra chocolate chips on top of those and they were oh so yummy. I had two for breakfast Sunday morning. Delish... and perfect for fall. Try them!

 

what's been happening at our house

Seasonal allergies are really rough this year. I take Allegra every morning, but it's still bad. My throat feels like it's been taken over a cheese grater. I hate not feeling well. 

My son has chosen a college and we have applied for scholarships. How did I go from having a little boy who watched Rugrats every night to having a child who was going to college? Seriously. Blink of an eye. We go for a campus visit in a month. I swear I was just going on my own campus visits.

Chesney is participating in a basketball clinic every Sunday. She works hard and comes home tired and sweaty but she's loving it. So strange for me to suddenly have a sports kid.

We ordered Mykiah's class ring last night. The choices since my high school days are a bit different, but darn if they didn't have the exact same ring I ordered twenty-some years ago. When I got my ring, it was a vintage style. I guess now it's really vintage, huh? Mykiah chose a very modern style. It made my jewelry loving heart happy...

For anyone interested in the saga of my dog not eating... he's eating again. We switched him to dry, Beneful dog food. He ate that for two weeks and then he slowed to not really eating again without bribery. We decided to try his standard food (which was Ole Roy in packets with gravy). Darn if he didn't gobble up the same thing he refused four weeks ago that started this whole thing. We only had a couple of the Ole Roy packets so we bought some Pedigree packets and he is eating it without any need for bribes or anything else. Stupid, silly dog. Good thing I love him so stinking much.

Have a wonderful weekend! Today is my husband's birthday so we'll probably go out to eat and have some cake. You enjoy yours!

burritos for lunch

I've been back at work for 9 weeks and I'm already tired of making my own lunch. Peanut butter, lean cuisine, leftovers... it can only go so far before I'm all, "I'll just have Jimmy Johns deliver."

I decided I'd make some burritos for lunch this week. Since Brady has officially become a vegetarian, it was a way to get some serious protein into my boy as well.

First I gathered my ingredients:

• Refried beans
• Enchilada Sauce
• Shredded Cheese (I used Mexican blend and Pepper Jack)
• Tortillas

I stirred together the refried beans and enchilada sauce. This makes them fairly runny, but it will be OK. This photo was taken after I did the first batch of burritos. I added in some browned ground beef for the second group (i.e. mine).

Plop some of those beans onto a big burrito tortilla. Then sprinkle some cheese (ok, lots of cheese) on top of the beans.

I put the tortillas on a paper towel to avoid big messes. After I'm done with the burrito, I wrap the paper towel around it and put it in the fridge. In the morning, just grab a burrito and off to work.

Here's my happy burritos:

They're curing my lunch boredom. Any other suggestions?

recipe: taco pizza

One of my favorite foods is taco pizza from Pizza Hut. Ours wasn't quite as good, but we tried.

I used a recipe from Real Mom Kitchen again as a base for my meal.

I didn't use the crescent roll dough. Mykiah 1) thought it sounded disgusting and 2) couldn't figure out why we'd use crescent roll dough when you can get premade crusts anyway.

She had a point. So we just used premade crusts.

Instead of sauce, spread refried beans. We added cooked (but unseasoned) ground beef next. 

For Dan and Ches, we added some cheddar cheese and slid their pizza in the oven. For the big kids and I, it was more complicated. We didn't put beef or black olives on Brady's portion. The whole pizza got chopped green onions. Cheese over the whole thing. It worked really well.

 

Good stuff. Not quite as good as Pizza Hut (or my favorite Papa Murphy's) but still good for a Sunday lunch with my family spread out all over the house... watching football, cleaning closets.... the usual.

 

 

about the Kindle

In June, we gave Brady a Kindle and then I was given one a month later.

I'm still not sure what to think of it. 

I like to read in and near water (love taking a new book into the tub on a cold night). I like to feel a book. I'm not cautious with my books and like to throw them on the floor beside my bed, on the floor of my car, on a table near my laptop. I don't actually pay much attention to wear I put them. I just have them everywhere. I dog ear my books. I own hundreds of them. Dan would say thousands. I reread continuously. I simply cannot rest unless I have a book going so I have to reread.

I'm really pick about what I'll read. It does me no good to know that Amazon has tons of free Kindle books. I'm not reading something just because it's free. I read from a dozen select authors, and that's just about it. 

Here's where the Kindle comes in handy. My favorite author, John Sandford, has a book coming out today. I won't even have to go out of my way to buy the book or wait for Mr. Mailman to deliver it. I'll just turn on my Kindle and there it will be. 

Except I'll have to wait till Friday night to read it. Once I start reading, I'll read the whole stinking thing. And I have to work tomorrow (and Thursday and Friday) so I'll be a good girl and wait till Friday. 

Now my son... he loves his Kindle. He's constantly reading on it. He really loves the thing. His interests run more to the classics, so I'm constantly getting new emails telling me he's made a purchase... only to discover he downloaded The Scarlet Letter or something equally strange for a 17 year old boy to be reading.

The verdict is still out on the Kindle. I have 3-4 books preordered for October and November, so I should have a better feel by December. Or, you know, this time Saturday, when I will have read my first anxiously awaited book via Kindle. I simply can't wait to revisit Virgil and the gang...

sharing a great blog

I'm a compulsive blog reader. I probably check them 3-4 times a day on average, and there's on recently that I'm always happy to see updated.

Bringing Sterling Home is the story of two teachers who decided to adopt a child from eastern Europe. This child is also a child with Downs Syndrome. 

Oh, I adore children with Downs Syndrome. They are full of life and joy and they just make my heart sing. I've thought about adopting one of these special children in the past, I just don't think it's right for our family at this time. 

I'm so enjoying reading Erin's story. I love the little glimpses of Sterling and hearing about spending time in a different country. I can't wait until he's home and they start living as a family.

The Hinz family is adopting via Reece's Rainbow, a non-profit agency that connects adoptive families with children with Downs in other countries (where perhaps they don't have the opportunities they would in the US). Consider checking out the website and making a donation of time and passing on the word about this great agency.

I'm not completely clear on the timing between here and where Sterling is, but sometime in the next 24 hours or so, there's a court date. Prayers for the family to be cleared to bring Sterling home quickly and smoothly would be much appreciated.