Betty Crocker, eat your heart out!

I did a little bake-a-thon tonight.
We're having brunch tomorrow at my mom's after mass as Holy Spirit. A mass is being said there for my dad, Monday would have been his 73rd birthday.
I made an Alice Hoolihan's Sour Cream Coffee Cake, a delicious cake from the Pioneer Woman website (secret ingredients that can't be disclosed until after everyone eats it) and a pan of those luscious bars pictured below.
Can I just tell you that they are absolutely as delicious as they look in the picture! Oh my goodness! Hello LOVER, let me sink my teeth into you. So good. I would highly recommend moving that to the top of the "recipes I should try list" if you have one of those going.

Hello Lover . . . .

Check out this recipe and I dare you not to try it????
I'll probably give this a whirl on Saturday . . .

Emily's appointment

I forgot to mention Emily's appointment.We have a concern about her being caught up in time to attend mainstream kindergarten, we are hoping that she would be able to go to Nativity School. Based on the assessment that everyone submitted, she is showing up with the maturity or a 2.9 year old child. A little more than a year behind in development. The speech therapy, physical therapy and occupational therapy that she receives at school right now is doing wonders for her, but she's not progressing as well as we had hoped. So, in order to be assured that she is going to receive the therapy through the summer (May-September is a long time to go with nothing), he is writing her current evaluation to say that she is borderline on the cerebral palsy spectrum and will require treatment through the summer and all next school year. If necessary, this diagnosis on her record will keep her alligned to receive the services needed through St. Paul Schools. I have always be leary of having a label of "cerebral palsy" attached to her as I don't want it to follow Emily throughout her whole schooling. However, right now she needs the special attention and treatment that goes along with that diagnosis. Dr. Tervo also gave Dan a book on toilet training your "special child." We're doing what we can right now, we're just waiting for the lightbulb to go off in Emily's head so that she will be more confident in herself to be fully trained.

The latest and greatest

So, several people have asked what happened at our house on Tuesday morning. Here's the low down:
Emily had an appointment at Gillette for her annual evaluation with Dr. Tervo, the pediatric neurologist on Tuesday morning at 8:45am. I planned to go to the appointment and then work from home for the rest of the day. On Monday night, Louie was complaining that he was hot and his tummy hurt. We were eating dinner and he got down and went to the living room. He started making these weird noises, Dan said "oh, he's been making sick sounding noises lately." But, I had a feeling. I went to the LR to find him throwing up all over the floor. He was feeling better on Tuesday morning, but I really didn't think it was a good idea to bring a kid that was sick the night before to Gillette and spread the joy to the patients there.
So, Dan was getting ready to go, I was in Louie's room getting laundry organized and I heard a really loud pop and buzzing sound. All the lights in the house went out. I went to the back room where the circuit box is and smelled this horrible smell. I opened up the closet and the smell was really bad. I quickly called Lynch's house to see if they could recommend an electrician to come and take a look. I called Xcel energy to see if there was anything weird on their end. No, but when I said that it smelled weird, they sent someone out immediately.
Dan left with Louie and Emily. He dropped Lou off at Lynch's house and went to Gillette with Emily.
Mark from Highland Electric showed up and so did someone from Xcel Energy. The immediately turned all power to our house at the meter outside. They came in and looked. The main breaker had tripped, but upon further investigation, it tripped because there was a short between one of the circuit breakers and the main breaker. It melted the main breaker to the electrical panel and thus caused the trip. Both the Xcel guy and Mark, the electrician said that we are very lucky we were home. If we had not been home, we surely would have returned to house that was burned to the ground as the current was still coming in from the meter and that could have continued to melt the panel more and cause a fire.
Thankfully, I was home. Dan couldn't smell a thing??? and had I not mentioned that I smelled something weird, Xcel or the electrician wouldn't have been to our house in 15 minutes and shut everything down.
The root of the problem is that when the house was rewired in 1997, the electrician at the time used aluminum wiring in the circuit box rather than copper. It isn't as durable as copper. It became loose in the connection and thus caused the problem.
There you have it. We now have a new panel and all new circuits in our house.
We all spent the day at Lynch's house on Tuesday as they had to shut down power to our house for several hours to get everthing repaired and install a new circuit panel.
We are sooooo thankful that we were home at the time, had it been 15 minutes later, we would not have been.

My final assignment

Today, I had to submit my last assignment for The Photographer's Workshop. The assignment was an evaluation of progress, basically submitting a picture before and after.
Well, here's my before:

Notice how it's out of focus? it was shot in full auto mode (the green square) and used a flash.

Doesn't follow the rule of thirds or have any sort of compositional value to it what so ever.

My "after" picture:

Follows the rule of thirds, exposure is good, it is in focus and I didn't use a flash. The only light in the picture is the light from the piano lamp in front of the kids. This is one of my favorite pictures that I took during the class. I just love it.

I took both of these pictures from the exact same spot at my sisters house, one year apart.

New Blog Header

So, it's taken me since December 25, when I received Photoshop CS4 for a Chrismtas gift to figure out how to work the background and textures along with borders and brushes in Photoshop CS4.
For anyone who is considering upgrading to CS4, if you already have CS2 or CS3, let me know. I'll trade you, no questions asked! You need some really high end display and digital cards and stuff for it to work correctly. If I could exchange it for CS3 with the store, I would. NO WHERE has CS3 anymore. I even called and pleaded with a guy at Adobe. My call was forwarded to technical support (surely in India), and I struggled through a phone call with this guy in hopes of fixing my computer. Well, it's taken me forever but I finally created this . . .
I don't think that I'll be changing this for a while. I'll maybe update the pictures, but that's about it.
On a fun note, the border from the header is one from the instructor of my photography classes collection. She's created some really fun borders and brushes to add to pictures for scrapbooking and blogging. I'll keep working on those and post some of them in the near future.

Weekend update: We don't have any plans for the weekend! I love that! I just got done mixing up a batch of sourdough pancakes for breakfast (our kids LOVE them!). Louis is already looking forward to them. He is going through a period of not eating or at least only eating about 1 meal a day. He's not picky, but he just don't consume the quantity he used to.
Tomorrow afternoon, Sara and Charlotte are coming over for a playdate. Emily and Louie are excited to play with Charlotte. They've been talking about her since yesterday, when Charlotte's grandpa came over to talk life insurance for Dan and I. I'm going to make my brother Mark's fabulous recipe of Arroz con Pollo. Stacy mentioned it on facebook last week and I've been thinking about it ever since. It is so delicious, I can't even tell you . . . Mark got the recipe from some old Cuban cookbook that he picked up somewhere in Florida. The book is written in Spanish and has minimal english translation. Regardless, the Arroz con Pollo is delish and I can't wait!
Sunday is doughnut Sunday at Assumption, so we'll be heading down there for mass at 9:30am. Our kids LOVE doughnut Sunday!
Sadly, my photography class came to an end today. I have an assignment to complete and submit by Sunday. The assignment is to basically pick a before and an after picture and critique the exposure, white balance, ISO, shutter speed, composition, etc. All the stuff that we learned during the class.
I'll post the before and after once I pick them out. This class has been such a positive experience for Dan and I. I actively participated and Dan just read along and was my support. Both of us have learned what all the buttons and settings on our camera are for, we've learned how to adjust them and we have also learned about how to evaluate natural lighting. The biggest and most important thing (my personal opinion) is that we learned how to take a picture at night, indoors without using a flash! Of course, I had to buy a new lens (or two) but it's been great!

Here's a few of my before pictures, all of them are indoors and overblown from the flash that went off when they were taken.



This one, didn't have a flash go off, but I had no idea what aperture, ISO and exposure compensation were . . .

Emily's cute little over exposed face. . . .

I don't think that I really need to post any "after" pictures. If you've been reading along, you've seen them over the last 9 weeks.

The Juicy Blucy

We went over to the U and had our computer memory upgraded tonight at the best computer parts/repair store around. We walked in the door with the CPU to get a additional memory card for it. The guy had the cover off and determined how much in a matter of minutes, the additional memory was installed and ready to go in about 10 minutes. It was awesome!

We were headed to the Groveland Tap for dinner, but Dan wanted to go to the Blue Door. It used to be called Puerto Azul, a mexican restaurant. It's not mexican anymore. It is a burger joint and it's awesome! For you fans of that greasy dump called the Nook, this place is soooo much better. Their signature burger is the Juicy Blucy. A burger stuffed with blue cheese and chopped garlic. What can be better than that? Well, the beer battered green beans for one . . . again, delicious!

Emily and Louie were entertained during our long wait for food by the wall covered with chalkboard at the end of the booth. They played teacher. It was funny.

I thought it was funny that the table next to us was drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon (ummm, hello reminds me of the Avalanche in Milwaukee). Yep, they have PBR on the menu for $2 a 20 oz can. I did wonder if it might be served in a brown paper bag. Still didn't order it.

We all agreed, it is the best hamburger that you can get in the Highland/MacGroveland area. It was delish! It gets 4 stars from us.
Beware though, it's teeny tiny. Only about 10 tables (3 booths and a few 4 tops) and it's busy. We got there and got a table right away, but that was 5:30. At 5:45, there was a 30-45 minute wait for a table. The wait for food was a tad bit long, but the wall on the back side of the booth is a chalkboard so the kids had a great time playing teacher.
Check it out, you won't be disappointed.

The "New" Zoo

Today, we went to the "new" zoo. Remember when that is how we all referred to it? The New Zoo. Well, it's almost 30 years old, hardly new anymore.
But we went and had a great time. It was our first trip somewhere like this without the stroller and it went well. Louie RAN from exhibit to exhibit.
It was ABC day there, there was a little band playing and Emily was the only kid that actually followed directions and stood on the blue line with her maracas.
The Seahorse
The touching pool in Discovery Bay. Emily and Louie were looking for Mr. Ray.

Isn't this the funniest looking fish? it has a nose and it looks like it's got a face.
Lou was looking at all the fish in the coral reef.


Over in Discovery Bay, the shark reef. Here's Brucie! We're having fish for dinner tonight!
Then Dippin' Dots.

Ice cream headaches!

We told Louie that we were going to ride the train (the Monorail). Went up, bought out tickets and waited. Then, they announced that the train was broken. Louie was sooo sad. We went and watched the dolphins, watched the sting rays and then it was time for another train. So, we bundled up and went on the Monorail, it was lovely.

We liked the zoo so much that we ended up becoming members out there. I know that passes can be checked out of the library, but that requires planning ahead . . . so now we can go whenever we want. Both kids loved it there, I think we'll be going back soon! And can't wait for spring and the farm babies exhibit.

Tubby Time!

Santa brought bathrobes for each of the kids this year. One problem, neither one of them will wear it. The other day, I got Louie to wear is robe for about 45 seconds. Long enough to test the water in the tub.
Emily absolutely refused to have her picture taken that day, so only Louie pictures today.

Testing the water

Had to test it again . . .

Washing his own hair.

Making sure that all his trains were there.

It was so freaking cold on Thursday night that the cold water on our kitchen sink froze. I had my new hairdryer under the sink for what seemed like forever. Finally, drip, drip, drip.

The daily question . . .

What to have for dinner?

Sign up for the weekly crock-pot recipe and you can scratch one day off the list . . .

The Pioneer Press is sending an e-mail once a week for 12 weeks to anyone who signs up.

Words just can't explain . . .

How cold it is. But this will . . .

Seriously!

This is the 7 day forecast . . .





It's stinking cold!

Emily and Lorenzo

Quick picture, yesterday before we took the kids to my mom's house, Louie found this pack of undies that we picked up at Target. He was determined to put a pair of them on, so I found him running through the house like this:
Emily has an ear infection and she really wasn't feeling well. She didn't sleep last night at Grandma's house and was exhausted when we finally got home from urgent care. This is what a very tired little girl looks like:

This afternoon, Lorenzo came over while Auntie Tesa and the girls went to Grandma Kay's concert at the Seminary. He is teething right now and wasn't in the best of moods today. . .This is what a little boy that was very tired looks like:



Three and a half hours later, this is what a little girl that had a good nap looks like:

Lorenzo slammed an 8oz bottle in less than 5 minutes and was a total crank. He finally settled down and took an hour long nap on his favorite auntie (wink) and this is what a happy little boy looks like:



Unfortunately, this didn't last very long, but his momma came and picked him up just as he was getting crabby again. . . . Emily had so much fun trying to get Lorenzo to smile. It wasn't shortly after Lorenzo left that the motrin wore off for her and she became a crank too.
Both Emily and Louie were in bed at 7:45 tonight. Hopefully, she'll feel good enought to go to ECFE in the morning.

Sicky

Last night, Emily and Louie had an overnight at Grandma's house. Dan and I had our annual ref dinner with his MIAC college football crew. We dropped the kids off at Grandma's house at 5:30, they had pizza for dinner and went downstairs to watch "the Dancing Show" (aka: The Lawrence Welk Show). We thought that all was well.
This morning, my mom called at 8am to tell us that Emily had been up all night crying with a fever. She kept telling Grandma that her ear hurt. So, we met Grandma at Assumption and headed straight over to urgent care that opened at 10am. We saw the doctor and she's got a bad infection in her left ear. So, we're home today with a very sad girl.
Dan finally got the prescription from Walgreen's. While they have a drive thru, they take FOREVER to fill a prescription. Snyder's would see that it's from Urgent Care and fill it immediately! Need to remember that for next time. . . . hopefully, not too soon though.

Funny note, Emily's weight was 32.6 pounds. The same that she weighed a year ago at Urgent Care. She's 3 inches taller than last year, but the same weight . . . and she eats a ton. Definitely doesn't get that from me!

Game night!

Last night was a rare Friday night during the high school basketball season, Dan didn't have a game to run out the door to after dinner. So, we thought it would be fun to have game night! Emily and Louie loved it! We played the memory game and Candyland . . . I did get a little hint on the memory game with little ones, only put out 4-5 matches, so 10 cards total! I was so tired of 50 card pickup. Candyland was lots of fun too.












Then we had some delicious snowman shaped ice cream treats and someone got an ice cream headache!


Fun times!