My son

The other night I was feeling pretty rotten, it was a rotten bug and I looked awful. Nose running, coughing, and an infected and swollen eye. I crawled in to bed with Adam to say goodnight.

I said, "I love you so much, why do I love you this much?"
He said, "Probably because you made me."
I said, "Good point, that is probably it."
He said, " I wonder why I love you so much."
I said, "Probably because I made you."
He said, "Yeah, and because you are so beautiful."
I said, "Really, you think I am beautiful?"
He said, "Yeah, Mom, even when you got your hair cut I still thought you were beautiful."

He is so awesome, and I love him. I am rethinking my haircut but I am sure that I love him!

The Plague!

I think that we have rounded the corner but we have been hit by a nasty bug that first took Adam out with an ear infection. Then it was Isla's turn with and ear and eye infection and then I was out for the count with strep throat. Whew, lets just say I am feeling the best today that I have felt since Wed, although my eye is now giving me some trouble. I am really hoping that tomorrow morning will get us all to school and work! I hope you are all well out there.

Chandra

PS. I have made some changes so that you should be able to comment without signing in or anything. Just in case there is someone out there that reads my ramblings.

Valentine’s Day

I was feeling a bit low yesterday so I sent Ed out to get something for the kids for Valentine’s Day.  He picked up some Olympic stuff for each of us, including himself.  Here we all are!

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Don’t we look patriotic.  It must have worked because we just won our first gold medal!

We just had the best meal!  A great way to celebrate Valentines day together.  Here are the recipes for the best parts!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-potatoes/

These potatoes were good, a nice change from the regular.  The kids really like them.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/grilled-ribeye-steak-with-onion-blue-cheese-sauce/

Ok, this sauce.   I am not sure that my words will do it justice but this was some incredibleness on a fork.  It was really rich and I could probably make it with something less than heavy cream but wow…… wow….wow.  I am sure I will make this again, maybe if you come for a visit I will show off with it!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/molten-chocolate-cake/

The way to my son’s heart is definitely through his stomach.  And chocolate is the fastest way.  I won a little more of his heart tonight.  Really good!  I am not an obsessed chocolate fan but man was this good!  I added some raspberries that were a great compliment to the rich chocolate!

I hope you all had a great Valentine’s day.  I am loved and I love, what more can I ask for!

Spruce Grove here we come!

 

For a friend’s birthday last week we went for a steam and out for a tea after.  We were all catching up and talking about future plans, she was on her way to Hawaii and then she is only home for a short time and then her family are going to Victoria for a visit as well.  When she asked if I had any holidays planned I started to say no, since my career change those big vacations feel like they will be far in the future.  We are adjusting to the new budget that we have and big holidays will have to wait.  While I was feeling some envy about her exciting trip I know that we have made the right decision.  The truth is that our family does have a “vacation” coming up.  I told her how excited I was to be going to stay in a hotel in Spruce Grove to watch Ed and Adam’s hockey team play hockey.  The 5th and 6th of March we get to go and stay in a hotel with a pool and eat out and watch a bit of hockey.  Our team has a great set of parents and I am really looking forward to it.

It may not be Hawaii and I guess it is all in how you choose to look at things isn’t it.  I choose to be excited about our get away and I know that we will have a great time!

Empanadas

I found another recipe that we all loved. This one takes a while but makes lots. We all love tacos and chili and this is in the same flavour family but calls for smoked paprika that is delicious and chipotle powder that was also really good. Adam took them for lunch and it felt like he had a "pizza pocket". But these are much better! I was able to get a few in the freezer before they were all gone.


Empanadas Blog Disney Family.com

Don't you love her writing! I found Catherine Newman when I was pregnant with Isla and have been reading her ever since. Ed even bought her book for me!

Adam came home from school with a fever yesterday. Poor guy, he doesn't have a fever today but his nose is running so much and he is just feeling awful. So Ed went to hockey without Adam to coach the team and everyone was asking after him so Ed told them all that he got traded. Ha ha!

Last night I was at the Vagina monologues. It was great! I went to see a friend that was in it and went with some of the ladies that I worked with at CCS. I laughed so hard and then in the next moment I was crying. I would recommend it to all women, there were a few men there but they were definitely outnumbered.

So we are turning in to Olympic junkies already! When I got the tickets for last night's Vagina Monologues I didn't realize it was the same night as the opening ceremonies so I missed out but I am hoping that I will be able to see it on a replay. Ed thought it was wonderful and his highlight was the poet that read "We are more". We are saddened by the death of the Georgian athlete and have talked about its impact a lot. Hard decisions for the organizers, a black cloud over the athletes and the poor family and friends of that young man. We just can't believe that they have been replaying the accident please stop!

Valentine's Dance

Here is my dancing queen! The school put on a valentine's dance to raise money to put up a climbing wall. I helped out with the raffle table. Not a lot of work but it was fun to help out at the school and to meet some of the other moms. It was so great, lots of families came out and the kids had a great time. Candy grams, popcorn, raffle prizes that were really awesome and roses to give to a special someone. Adam got me a rose and then he decided that he needed to get one for his friend Jack's little sister, Marin, his Dad encouraged him to get one for his sister as well. My little Cassanova!

He was a dancing machine, and then would come and help me out at the raffle table, taking money and giving out the tickets. He was all sweaty and red in the face and happy.

So the raffle draws came at the end of the night and guess what we came home with. We just opened it this morning and the kids have loved playing with it ever since. Ed is afraid that we are going to have the next Hannah Montana on our hands, maybe he should start growing his mullet now!

The Better Butter Chicken

We loved this recipe! Okay 3 out of 4 of us loved it. Adam was not really excited about it but he did eat it.



The recipe is out of the "Eat, Shrink and be Merry" recipe book by Janet and Greta Podleski.



2tbsp butter

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

2 tsp minced garlic

1tbsp grated ginger root

1 1/2 tsp chili powder

3/4 tsp each ground coriander and ground turmeric
1/2 tsp each ground cinnamon and ground cumin
1 can (28oz /796 ml) diced tomaotes, drained
1 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp each salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 whole cooked rotisserie chicken, skin removed and meat cut up
1/3 cup light sour cream (not fat free)
2 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
Hot cooked basmati rice (optionsl

Melt butter in a deep, 10 inch skillet or soup pot over medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Cook slowly, stirring often, until onions are tender, about 5 minutes. Add gingerroot, chili posder, coriander, turmeric, cinnomon, and cumin. Cook 1 minutes more. Add drained tomatoes, broth, brown sugar, salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occassionaly. Remove from heat.

Transfer half the sauce to blender and puree until smooth. Return pureed sauce to pot with remaining sauce. Mix well and return to heat. Stir in cut-up chicken. Cook until chicken is heated through. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and cilantro. Serve over rice.


So I made a couple of changes. I put a smaller can of diced tomatoes in and also added a small can of tomato sauce and did not do the whole blender thing. Too messy! I didn't have ginger so I used powdered ginger instead and it was still really good!

If you try this out let me know if you liked it as much as we did!

Busy Break

The kids and I were off for Teachers convention and managed to keep ourselves very busy. We had lots of fun with friends, tobogganing, skating (well we tried but they had just flooded the ice and it was slushy) swimming at the Collicut, hockey, dance, some more hockey. It was nice to be off with them and I think that they had a good break and will be ready to get back at it again tomorrow.

I was able to do some baking as well, some cookies, banana bread, bread. Today I made my mom's recipe for buns. I had never attempted it and they actually turned out really well. I am impressed with myself and will do it again. I alos made granola as we all like yogurt and granola for breakfast. Then I did ham and scalloped potatoes for supper, I would really love it if the clean up fairy would come and help but he seems to be glued to the couch watching football.

We finally got the pictures hung up in our house. It took a little while to figure out where to put them as we did a bit of changing things around. I developed some pictures and created a photo wall in the living room and I really love how they turned out. I picked up a new set at HomeSense this weekend as well. Still some work to do as I am not sure about the "China" cabinets but I will keep working on it. Here are a few pictures.

Skating update

Look at her go!

Yes, I know I sound like Darth Vader in the background. I am out of breath from playing tag with Adam, and yes, he did catch me! He is getting so fast.

Cinnamon Buns and Kids say the Funniest Things

I made these Cinnamon buns on Sunday. It was fun but a lot of work, there are lots of steps and the end of the result was good. I am not sold on them as they are really sweet but they are a good place to start and I can adjust this recipe to make it work for me. I think I will half it next time, skip the icing and use brown sugar in the filling and put some whole wheat flour in.

The Pioneer Woman Cooks - Ree Drummond

I was telling my mom about this recipe and how the kids said they were a bit sweet. She reminded me that when I was growing up that us kids all would tell her that my Grandma's were always the best buns, even if mom's were exactly the same as Grandma's. So I asked the kids who made better cinnamon buns me or Grandma, the little traitors said that Grandma's were better. Oh well, I thought mom's were better too.

So tonight Isla was in the room when I was changing my shirt. She came up to me after and put her hands on my breasts and announced that they were big. Pardon me? She repeated "they are big and all mom's have big boobs. But then they get lower" "What do you mean they get lower?" I said. She replied, "Well they kind of go flat on your tummy." "oh" I said. What could I say, out of the mouth of babes. Not very flattering but really sells the benefits of a good bra. With kids you need to learn to laugh at yourself otherwise you may cry, tonight I had a good laugh!