leftovers...? what?

Well, we had leftovers for the first time as a family of 4.  That might actually be true, becasue Maddy has just kinda started eating a lot more of our meals, even though she only has 2 1/2 teeth.  Anyway, it was so good, I had to post it. I also realize I had been made fun of by a couple people because I had posted pictures of my food in the past.  So, this means I dont care:

Ingredients:

Smoked provolone cheese

French Bread slices

Leftover meat from a roast

onion

green pepper

Worcestershire sauce

olive oil

mayo

Directions:

Soak meat in a couple ounces of w. sauce for 15 minutes. While that is marinating, saute onion and green pepper in oil. Add meat to this mixture and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Toast slices of french bread in oven (I drizzled a little olive oil on them and let them crisp up a bit at 350). I then added the meat mixture on top and added farmers cheese, though it calls for smoked provolone cheese) and let it melt for about 5 minutes. I added REAL mayo , not miracle whip (I learned that's what Subway uses, I always though it was miracle whip!) and I ate it open-faced, like the picture above. Even peter liked it.  We also served baked potato soup with it. If you want the recipe for that I can post it as well.   Finally, a beef sandwhich that we both liked!

While I am at it, here is a picture of the coffee-mocha cheesecake I made for Christmas. It was a hit, and it really did taste like coffee

cards

I've been into card making the last few years. Most of the 'nice' ones i've done I dont think i've stopped to take a photo of. But, I have been trying to do so lately, so that I can look back for ideas. The top two are cards i've made in the last month or two, and the last one is one i made last year (2008) for someone for christmas. There's more to come!

there's a storm brewin'....

today is saturday. I am on the couch with my warm rice bag. You know what time of month it is.... yes, it came yesterday, the day of my appointment. Luckily I wasnt planning on going anyway becuase of the freezing drizzle predicted. I made the appointment for the upcoming Monday, so we'll see if i get there or not.

I havent been taking a lot of pictures, but some. I will post those soon. I am listening to peter and kate do dishes. This last week, starting Tuesday, Maddy has had a fever for the most part, and just cut her top right tooth on Thursday! I hope she gets better. She's had an awful cough this week. Kate had a runny nose for about a day, and then i am just getting over a cold that I"ve had for a couple days. Now I am back to being 'sick' again, which is ok. At least peter is home to help.

Last night we had our weekly date night. We joined netflix and we get a movie each week, and this week "fireproof' came in the mail. We dont get to decide which movie comes, we just sign up for about 6 or so. I was soo impressed with the movie. I wish I could watch movies like that every week. It just had a really good message. I mean, for sure the actors werent the greatest, but I dont even care! It was, I think, all done by a church. So anyway, peter and I left our livingrooms just feeling really good and convicted. and thankful for eachother. now today he is doing dishes for me and I get to sit and play on my blog. I would like to cut some fabric for kate's quilt... i will post pictures of that too--my progress. anyway, there's supposed to be this big storm coming. We were a little worried that the freezing rain would turn into freezing power lines=no power. So last night I got some water saved in a couple of old milk jugs.... just in case.

Monday Funday?

Today is Monday the 18th. Over the last two or so months, I have been struggling with breastfeeding. It started in November when I had gone away for about 4-5 hours, and came back to pump. In that amount of time, I only pumped out 2 1/2 ounces!!! This child was living off of probably 3-4 oz, every two hours. It is only partially my fault though. At about 4 months old she was nice and plump. Then she began to only want to drink for 5 min. on each side... which altered how much milk i was producing. Kate would always make so much noise, maddy would get distracted. Anyway, so last night i was pretty darn sure i had to quit. The first two times my milk supply started to get really low, i cried and cried and cried. I was determined to get it back. I took herbal supplements and it did work, a little. It probably boosted my supply up to an ounce greater. But it has dropped again, and last night i was pretty sure (and kinda ok) with being done. I realized that it's not even the 'bond' i have with her when i nurse, (because i pretty much only pump) and i'm ok if she doesnt get that bottle of breast milk a day.... the thing that is hitting me the most is that, when my milk supply is completely gone..... so is her babyhood. I'm taking supplements again, for the third time in 2 months, and i'm drinking more water, and I am also trying to pump every 3 hours for sure, and we'll see what happens in about 4-5 days. My goal for sure is 10 months.... and i've got two, long hard weeks ahead.

On a lighter note i've been taking more pictures again. So, here they are:

Birthdays

Here are some pictures of the birthday parties we've celebrated, and some other pictures too.

Here's a picture of janelle and her lovely family on her birthday. Just a note: i edited the family picture with photoshop.... the original had Hannah's head turned the other way!!! I did it!!!





Here's me on my birthday, opening some gifts

We also finally got some nice weather, so Kate and I went outside and played in the snow for a while, while Maddy was taking a nap. (I was in every 10 min. to check on her of course) Here are some pictures of our little photoshoot.... I finally got a framer!!

It was so nice to be able to see her having fun outside. It's been so cold, she hasnt gotten to enjoy the snow or the sled. I am excited for when we can go down the hills... we are lucky to have one right across from our yard. Lots of kids sled there and Kate did last year, but she was still only 18 months. I have a feeling she'll have even more fun this year. Well i better go do my bible study!!

Boston Cream Pie? Check

Well, here we are again.... 4th year in a row making the famous Boston Cream Pie. Let me explain why I do not like this Boston Cream Pie...

1. I made it 4 years ago, Peter's 26th birthday. I began in mid morning, with no children, and began to make the cake. (Boston Cream Pie, is really not a 'pie', but a cake) I got the cakes done, no problem. I then had to split the cake in half. This didnt go so well. It was crooked, and crumbly and eventually fell apart. So, to the store I went to get more supplies. The second cake was made, and chilled. I split it in half, this time, pretty good. The middle custard cream turned out ok, and i globbed it on the bottom part of the cake, and squished on the top half. I then made the chocolate sauce and poured it over the whole cake, and set it in the fridge. I made his meal, and one hour before i was going to serve the cake, i took it out to 'warm up'. I then took a long knife, and began to cut. The chocolate was very hard and all the custard oozed out, making it a messy nightmare to eat.
   
2. The second year I made it, i got the cake right, but the middle of the cake dropped, making the layers uneven. The version i used, which was a martha stewart version, was a lot more complicated, having to use a fresh vanilla bean and everything. I did this version ok, but the chocolate still became hard as i cut into it.


3. The third year I made it, was a success!! I split the cakes in half perfectly (using a different cake recipe) then i still used the same m. stewart filling recipe. I then put the bottom half in the fridge, and then left the top half of the cake at room temperature. A half hour before serving, I made the sauce, put the remainder of the cake on the filling, and poured the chocolate all over the cake. And it tasted good, too.


4. This year, I made the martha stewart recipe again. (what was I thinking). Peter asked if he could call our mortgage company to ask a couple questions. I said, yes. He was on hold for about 20 minutes and I really needed to start my cake, becuase it was 7:45 and it needed to cool before I wrapped it up. Maddy was crying, Kate was trying to help, peter was still on the phone, the egg mixture was burning, there was cake flour everywhere, and finally i set maddy and kate in the living room with peter because i am pretty sure it was easier for him to talk on the phone while watching the kids instead of me trying to bake a cake with kids!! in the kitchen!!! Finally, it was in the oven. The middle dropped again. So whatever, i am not redoing it. The next day, it was time to make the filling. The cakes were wrapped in saran wrap. I made the filling, but i think the milk mixture was too hot for the egg yolks, because some of it scrambled. Oh well. I split the cakes... only this time basically because the cake middle dropped, there was no middle! I sawed thru the cake with a bread knife and there was a hole in the middle. I sawed off more cake from another side that was lopsided, and layed that part on the plate. That was going to be the bottom. I poured the filling on the bottom layer, and put it in the fridge. right after supper, i took the cake out and made the chocolate, and put the top half of the cake on, and poured the chocolate. Still a success, tasted pretty good, but really... was not fun to make. I hate you boston cream pie!!

Pictures will come some other day. Ooh, today is sunday and we had peters birthday 'party'. Basically we celebrated his birthday for 3 days. Thursday (7th) was his actual birthday. Saturday we went to Fargo for the day to celebrate his birthday, and today we celebrated with a meal and dirt cake. I was so so so so tired today. I dont think i slept well this week; i dont know why, but i had to do a lot of cooking and baking today after church. But i was so tired , i had to take a 30 minute nap to recharge. I made BBQ Pork tips in the crockpot with homemade BBQ sauce (at peters request), stuffed baked potatoes (it was like a never ending potato... i felt like i was mixing it for hours) and then thats when i did alllll the dishes and then took a nap. After that i made the dirt cake. i was busy cleaning and cooking all day... so i am pooped!! Goodnight!! Sweet bed, here i come.

Getting the hang of it

I finally figured out this photoshop business. I changed the collage i made to a jpg. Duh!! Peter took a picture of me while working on it. Actually, he was trying to take a picture of kate... but it focussed on the computer...

I had a *small* photoshoot with my husband while playing guitar.. here's what came of that..

Then I decided to take some pictures of our cute heart-shaped waffles that we got for christmas. Lame, I know. But i like pictures of food.

Here are some pictures of Maddy while eating. She yawned the whole time. Then, that night--she slept 12 full hours!

Lots of things to figure out

I have been really trying hard to figure out camera settings and also my photoshop that I recently got. (Thank you mom, dad, and kelsey) Photoshop seemed dissapointing at first, but I believe I need to figure out how to use it before I comment on it. So far, it is editing how I wanted it to. This week I have learned how to make a photo collage. However, I think the size is a bit big... and i dont know how to change it :( I've set my camera settings to but the size still seems too big. I made a photo collage especially for this blog, but it seems to be taking forever and a day to post, and it still hasnt. It just keeps saying it's uploading. So once i figure that out, it will be fun to play around with. I have also been having some problems with focussing my camera. I think a large part is that my girls never sit still. I say, "kate... smile!" and she runs away and covers her face. I am chasing her and taking pictures at the same time. So i joined a group on facebook and will see if anyone can help me there. I think if there are ever any photography classes available, kay ellerbush and I agreed we'd go (depending on how much it is) - because i have a feeling i will be mostly self-taught. Which is ok....it just takes longer ;) here are some pictures i've recently taken. It takes forever to upload so i might only post two or three