Zucchini!

Friday, August 31, 2012

Guess what? One of our pumpkin plants turned out to be a zucchini plant! Year one of gardening has been so much fun! We are already excited about our plans for next years garden! I picked our first zucchini yesterday so that I could try out my new spiral slicer! 


 The verdict? 

We loved it! I made Detoxinista's raw alfredo sauce to top the "noodles" and it was super delicious! I couldn't believe how authentic this alfredo sauce tasted! This recipe is definitely a keeper! 


 C.Lo loved it! 


Kenley's first book

Thursday, August 30, 2012

"Those are stars, the stars are up with the birds. The end!"

Why we will not be voting for Mitt Romney (Or Obama)


Guest post by Brian:

I understand that in no way is this blog suppose to be political, but it is a family blog, and this is something very important to our family. I know there are many out there that use this argument for staying out of politics:

“I don’t need to worry about politics, God is in control.”

Yes. Yes he is. Hallelujah! Can I get an AMEN!!

Well while you’re staying out of politics, you might as well quit your job. After all, God will provide.

After Keri posted the video by GWDIFJTHISMAKESNOSENSEJAFISIFJSI, she received a reply from a friend of a friend, which in a very short summary said the same thing I hear ALL THE TIME:

“I really respect Ron Paul and understand why his supporters like him, but Romney is the nominee and we can’t take another 4 years of Obama in office, so we need to unite behind Romney.”

Ok, I’ll play along. Let’s say we all unite behind Romney and now Obama is out of office.

Now what?

What changes?

I know! Obamacare! It’s got to go!”

Ah, yes, Obamaca… sorry, I mean the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Yes, that does have to go. Anybody know where Obama got the blueprint for Obamacare? You guessed it, the governor of Massachussets, Mitt Romney.

            But Mitt Romney said he would repeal Obamacare.”

Yes, he did say that. His exact campaign slogan was “Repeal and replace.” The question is, replace with what? Does it make it better if a Republican does it? Is Romneycare OK?





Ok, ok, but Obama is just anti-constitution.”

Ah, well Mitt Romney must be spot on as far as the constitution goes.
(If you have never heard of these laws or don’t know much about them, I encourage you to look into them.)

            Patriot Act – a.k.a. The “Repeal the 4th Amendment Act” 
                        I can’t believe Obama signed this into law.”
           
            Hold on, hold on, hold on. This wasn’t Obama. This was a Republican that signed this into law. Our dear President Bush Jr. And will Romney repeal this? Of course not.




(Fun history here:

Excerpt: During that same meeting, Thompson quotes an aide as telling Mr. Bush, "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law [the Patriot Act] undermine the Constitution." Thompson quotes the President as screaming back, "Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It's just a g-d- piece of paper!")


            The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)- Indefinite detention

Bye, bye due process and habeas corpus. Surely Mitt Romney would repeal this:

Nope.



            Undeclared Wars

This one is my favorites that really shows Romney’s prowess with the Constitution:


In case you weren’t aware, the President does not have the power to go to war, that is the Congress’ job. Something about checks and balances, I don’t know…


“Ok, fine. Romney may not be the most constitutionally savvy candidate, but he’s still better than Obama. Plus, it’s really our economy that is suffering. Romney is a businessman. Also, look! He’s got Paul Ryan as a VP who plans on balancing the budget.”

Oh, right! I forgot how great of a businessman Romney is. I ask you this: What is the job of the president, especially a conservative president? The Conservative Republic Union has a good article on this here. 

Excerpt: “The goal of conservatives is to scale back government, not manage big government more efficiently.”

In the 5 roles of the POTUS, nowhere do I see “CEO-in-chief.” So in reality, his “business experience” is of very little worth as a president, a president with a proper view of his role, that is.

And you’re right, Paul Ryan’s budget plan sets to balance the budget….. by 2030. So the best we can do is take 18 years just to balance a budget? Our national debt is closing in on 16 trillion, but we applaud a balanced budget in 18 years? Obviously they don’t think it’s as serious as they should.

Also, and I’m going to touch on this briefly, even though it’s a MAJOR subject, but that is of the Federal Reserve. I STRONGLY encourage you research this. Maybe even read Ron Paul’s book “End the Fed.” (You can borrow my copy, it’s a fairly short read).

But will Mitt Romney do anything about the Federal Reserve? Nope. In fact, he told Larry Kudlow on The Kudlow Report that he wouldn’t worry about it at all. See for yourself:



Here's an awesome, fun, simple to understand cartoon on what the Federal Reserve system does, why it’s bad, and why it must be audited/ended:

Oh, and if you happen to need Duck Tales to explain the Federal Reserve and the problems with inflation:


“But a vote for Ron Paul (or Gary Johnson) is a vote for Obama.”

The more I get into politics, the more I realize that there is very little difference between the two parties. They both are taking away the rights of citizens, they are both for more war, they are both for increasing the role of the federal government, they both increase the federal deficit, and they both tell Americans otherwise. So I don’t look at it between a vote between Republican and Democrat. I look at it as a vote between the status quo and constitutional principles.




Ok, I told Keri that I wouldn’t make this too long, and I've already failed, so I’m going to end with this point:

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.” – John Quincy Adams




I CAN'T, WITH CLEAN CONSCIENCE, VOTE FOR SOMEONE THAT I BELIEVE IS CONTINUING TO LEAD AMERICA IN THE WRONG DIRECTION, EVEN IF HE'S DOING SO AT A SLOWER PACE THAN THE "OTHER GUY." 



I can prove that Republicans and Democrats are the same anyway right here.(humorous)


You may agree with me, you may not. That’s totally fine. I can’t tell you what to do, but I encourage you to look into things for yourself. Find out what Ron Paul has consistently been saying for the last 30 years. Find out who Gary Johnson is.

Even better idea: look at what the constitution says.

Here's some names you may recognize in the conservative evangelical community that also support Ron Paul (and do not support Mitt Romney).



Thanks for letting me steal your blog, Keri!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

GNOWFGLINS

Gnowfglins has a great post up about why they support Ron Paul. The video is really good too! Give it a watch!



Don't forget that you can still write Ron Paul on your ballot if you would like :)

What a week...

Sunday, August 26, 2012

You may remember that my week did not get off to a great start. However, we ended up having a super fun whirlwind week! 

Fred and Terri took their older grandkids over to Lake Chelan for the week and they were kind enough to invite us over for a few days! At first I was a little nervous to go but I figured that I could lay around on medicine over there just as well as I could here. 

Our nieces and nephew all live in Vancouver, so we only get to see them a few times a year. We really enjoyed getting to spend some "extra" time with them! For whatever reason Kenley started calling them her "new cousins" which was hilarious! When we were leaving she started crying and said "But I really loved my new cousins". 

It was so fun to watch all of the cousins interacting! I definitely wish that we all lived closer! 

Here are some pictures from our week.....  

This picture has nothing to do with our trip but it makes me laugh so I had to throw it in... 

We're finally here! 


"Hi Gracen, I miss you"



Claire was drama the WHOLE trip. She is so strong willed. It was rough. She was basically COMPLETELY obsessed with me and would cry and whine constantly if I wasn't holding her but then when I would hold her I never seemed to do it the right way.... It was frustrating and pathetic and now looking back on it kind of hilarious because of how ridiculous she was. Ah, perspective :) 



I made a smoothie with some leftover kombucha fruit that I didn't want to go to waste. I'm glad that I tried it because it was fantastic! I'll do a post on kombucha soon! We love it! 









We snuck off for a date to our favorite place. It wasn't as great as last time (due to a few service mishaps and chillier weather) but the pizza was still fantastic! I really need to recreate that pizza at home....I might even use white flour to make the crust.... Walking on the wild side! 
 '
He is a dork but I really really love him. 

Snuggles while watching Cars.... Gramma's FAVORITE movie :) 

Worn out! We celebrated Grandpa's birthday while we were over there too! Happy Birthday Fred!! 

 Claire.... 




On the way home we stopped at this super yummy BBQ place in Cashmere. Brian loves pulled pork sandwiches so I knew he needed to try these ones! If you are passing through Cashmere, forget about the Aplets & Cotlets (who eats those anyway?) and stop here! 


drama for days

Back home to the daily grind... and grocery shopping in style :) 

It's Halloween candy time! I am not a big candy person but I do love these {horrible ingredient} orange marshmallow pumpkins! I couldn't find any last year so I was a little overzealous and bought 6.... I promise to space them out and make them last until Halloween.... probably.... maybe :) 

What was your favorite part of this past week? 

Cousins are the best!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Especially when you are 3 and they will play Dora Candy Land with you!

So it's kind of a long complicated story...

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

...but I was in the emergency room Sunday night and am still a bit down for the count.

Do you get tired of reading about my many trips to the ER? Thankfully this was my first trip of 2012 and it was not related to my bowels! Yay bowels! Keep on working!

haha anyways some people have asked and it's a lot to explain so...

Super long story time begins now...

Feel free to skip this all:)

Friday, I woke up feeling a little off. I was honestly starting to think that it was because my body was so used to exercise that it now needed it and that my body would feel normal again once I went for a short run (WHO THINKS LIKE THIS?!?). That morning, I still went to the library with the girls and after that we went over to the Peter's house for lunch. I didn't have much of an appetite but I was able to eat my whole sandwich and some fruit. We went home and Kenley and I played outside while Claire napped. It was a hot day and I was feeling it. I kept drinking water and kombucha but continued to feel dehydrated. All of a sudden I got a massive headache and (left side) neck ache and thought that if I didn't get inside to cool down I would immediately pass out. I pretty much laid on my parents couch with that headache for the rest of the night. I tried eating a few pretzels but that was totally unappealing and then later in the evening I tried eating a bowl of ice cream and even that was unappealing. The whole evening my headache and neck ache were getting worse and it was beginning to hurt to swallow. I watched an episode of "I'm having their baby" and did the super ugly cry through the entire show. Then I took 2 Tylenol and went to bed with an ice pack on my neck. (Brian was away on a camping trip).

Saturday morning, I woke up with HORRIBLE pain in the left side of my neck. I was pretty miserable and thankfully Claire went down for a super early nap at 9 so I just put some cartoons on for Kenley and slept on and off until 12:30 which is when I expected Brian to be home. I sent him a ton of texts begging him to come home early. Of course, he got all of my texts at once when he finally got service, and assumed that my bowels were shutting down and that I was dying. Isn't he lucky that he gets to worry about my bowels? :). Anyway the whole day I was totally miserable and pretty much immobile. I kept going back and forth between chills and sweats and I couldn't walk more that a few feet without my head absolutely pounding and me getting dizzy and thinking I might pass out. I tried to stay as still as possible at all times because any slight neck movement was killer. Brian finally came home and was awesome and brought me a coconut water since we were thinking I was maybe dehydrated or had heat exhaustion or something. I took another nap with ice and then when I woke up I made an appointment with a massage therapist since I thought that maybe my half marathon had caused something in my neck to become displaced. I have never had such horrible neck pain or felt so immobilized. I drove myself to the massage and I knew I hadn't eaten anything all day so I tried to eat a piece of toast with jelly and a pear. I forced down 1/4th of the toast and about 2 bites of pear. My appetite just wasn't there and swallowing was miserable. My massage felt awesome but it didn't help with my neck pain at all. She said that my hips were really out of alignment causing my back to be really out of place which probably lead up to my neck. She adjusted my hips and really dug into a lot of places in my low back where she said I was really inflamed. She actually said she was surprised that I hadn't gotten hurt yet from how tense and out of sorts my back was. Leaving the appointment I was a bit disappointed because my neck was still really bothering me but she sent me home with instructions to ice for 20 minutes rest for 20 minutes and then repeat. I stopped at Albertson's on the way home to pick up some ingredients for the church potluck the next day and decided to buy a croissant and a donut. I had to force down the croissant and I couldn't make it more than 2 tiny bites of the donut. THIS IS NOT LIKE ME!! I came home and iced on and off until it was time for bed. I was miserable and we were now out of Tylenol so I took one of the leftover Percocet from my c-section hoping and praying that that would cut the pain enough for me to sleep through the night. Again, I went to bed with an ice pack on my neck.

Sunday morning I woke up at 5:30 in intense pain. It was as though I woke up the second the Percocet had worn off. I didn't want to move or wake Brian up so I laid there until 8:30 when he woke up and then I asked him for more ice in my ice pack and some water so that I could take another Percocet. I knew that there was no way that I could go to church in this condition. I laid as still as I could until 11:30ish when I decided to try going in the hot tub to loosen up my tense muscles and swollen neck. It seemed to help but when I got out to go get some water from my parents house I almost passed out on the way there. One the way back to my house I had to take 2 trips to rest in random chairs and close my eyes so that everything would stop spinning. I am sure that this had a lot to do with the fact that I was now going on 2 days of having nothing to eat and barely anything to drink because it was so miserable to swallow. I came in the house and sat in the recliner with my ice pack on my neck and fell asleep instantly until and stayed that way until Brian came home with the girls around 1:45ish. Brian and the girls took naps while I laid on the recliner until my mom got home from work and brought me over a smoothie so that I could have something in my system. I drank a second glass of smoothie in the hot tub while I decided whether or not to wait until the morning to try to get a doctor appointment or to just go in to the ER. As I was out there I was just getting more and more miserable and knew that I couldn't go much longer without taking another Percocet.... which I know is not a great idea to just medicate myself on old pills but that should let you know how horrid the pain was.

So my wonderful parents watched our girls while my wonderful husband drove me to the ER and sat with me in the waiting room for over and hour... maybe it was 2? I was in so much pain that I just sat as still as I could with my eyes closed for most of the time. When I finally saw a triage nurse she offered to put a neck brace on me to help stabilize my neck. I wish I could say that it helped and it did help stabilized my neck rotations but man swallowing was (is) still excruciating. I waited probably another hour after that to finally be given a bed and the nurse came in and took a look at my tonsils and then did a culture swab on them. She commented on how awful they looked and also commented on the fact that I had a temperature and had probably had one all weekend. I have no idea why I didn't even think to take my temperature but I didn't. Then... Wait... Wait.... Wait... The Doctor finally came in and looked at my tonsils and told me that I have had an abscess on my tonsil rupture and that it is super rare and he has never seen anyone who that has actually happened to because usually people have to go in and have it surgically drained and it must have been super painful.... We both almost burst out laughing when he said "this is rare" HOW MANY TIMES DO I HEAR THAT IN THE HOSPITAL? Oh just every time I am there something else rare is happening to me! Seriously! I am such a rare medical weirdo. I should just donate my body to science when I am done with it... I'm sure that they would discover all sorts of new "rare" things! :) Hahaha.

Anyway they sent me home with a prescription for antibiotics, steroids, and some Vicodin. They all seem to be helping a little bit but I am still feeling pretty weak from not being able to eat. I had a follow up appointment today on base and they sent out a referral for me to have my tonsils removed. But I guess they can't do that until they get them to calm down a bit first. So it might be a few weeks. But the good news is that I was able to eat a little bit of dinner today! Yay for sort of solid-ish food!

So that is the super long story of how I know nothing about my tonsils or my neck :) And that's where I am at right now.. A little bit medicated and a little bit in pain.... but getting better and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel a little bit brighter each day.


I am so thankful that the Lord allowed all of this to happen to me after my half marathon! 

So proud of our girl!

Without us even asking her, She made her bed all by herself for the first time today! Way to go Kenley!!!

Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Monday, August 20, 2012

This dinner has quickly become one of Brian's favorite dinners that I make! The kids aren't as crazy about it but we don't really push it either because that means more for us! 

Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Original Recipe from Iowa Girl Eats

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb ground chicken
  • 1 container (8oz) mushrooms
  • 1 can water chestnuts (drained)
  • 1 onion (diced)
  • pink salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 garlic cloves (minced
  • 1 inch ginger (peeled and minced)
  • 1 Tbsp sesame oil
  • 2 1/2 Tbsp tamari
  • 1/2 Tbsp water
  • 1 Tbsp almond butter
  • 1/2 Tbsp honey
  • 1.5 Tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tsp chili garlic sauce
  • dash of fresh pepper
  • 3 green onions, chopped

  • Lettuce leaves... we used about 8-10 medium ones from our garden

  • Trader Joe's Island Soyaki Sauce
  • Chinese Hot Mustard
  • Chili Garlic Sauce
Directions: 

  1. Heat a large skillet on medium high. Add chicken, onion, salt & pepper, and cook until chicken is nearly done, stirring often to break up the meat. Add in minced garlic and ginger, and continue cooking until chicken is no longer pink. (I used my microplane grater to mince the garlic and ginger) 
  2. While chicken is cooking add mushrooms and water chestnuts to food processor and pulse until they are small bits.
  3. Add mushrooms and water chestnuts to the skillet. 
  4. While chicken is cooking combine sesame oil, tamari, water, almond butter, honey, rice vinegar, and garlic chili sauce. Stir until smooth. 
  5. Once chicken is cooked through and onions are soft, add sauce and green onions to pan and stir to make sure everything is coated with the sauce. 
  6. Serve with the cool lettuce leaves and spicy dipping sauce! 
For Dipping Sauce
  1. In a bowl pour some soyaki sauce and add a small spoonful of hot mustard and a small spoonful of chili garlic sauce. You can make this as hot or as mild as you want by changing up the proportions of the mustard and chili garlic sauce. 
I have an idea in my head for making a vegetarian version of this soon too! I'll let you know how it turns out!

EDIT: Seriously, this is really good. That is all. -Brian

just pictures

Friday, August 17, 2012














 
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