Funday Sunday

Today marks the day of my 200th blog entry. Wow...I can't believe that I've blogged 200 times! That's amazing. So in honor of my 200th blog, I will be starting a new thing. Every Sunday, I will be posting a recipe that I have found (or use regularly) that I think is worth sharing. My mom taught me my mad cooking skills and I hope to pass those skills on to my children someday. They already join me in the kitchen and 'help' bake when they can. Naturally, it mostly makes a larger mess for me to clean up, but it's worth it in the end. Hey, gotta learn somehow, right? And seeing as how I have a child with a milk allergy and am still avoiding nuts, most of my recipes or fun foods that I find will be milk-free and nut-free. I'll be giving tips as to what products to use for anyone who might read this blog that also has a milk allergic person in their family. I will be calling this blog Funday Sunday and hope to post it every Sunday. Today's recipe is for Chocolate Soy-Pudding--yes, you can have pudding with soy milk! Woo-hoo! And here's a fun little note about my picture of the eggs in a bowl. I was making scrambled eggs this morning and when I cracked all four eggs, I looked down to see that they randomly created a happy face. Funny stuff I tell ya. Enjoy!

Chocolate Soy-Pudding

3/4 c. Sugar
1/4 c. Cornstarch
1/3 c. Cocoa
3 c. Soy milk (vanilla or chocolate tastes best)
1/4 t. Salt
1 1/2 t. Vanilla
3 T. Butter

Mix cocoa, sugar, salt, and cornstarch in a saucepan. Slowly add the milk, whisking continuously to prevent lumps. Bring this mixture to a boil with medium heat. Continuously whisk to prevent burning. Once mixture is boiling, lower the eat to simmer. Cover and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes until it thickens. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla. Refrigerate for one hour or overnight.

*Tips: This pudding is best served cold, but I tried it warm and it was tasty too. It saves well in the fridge. For a good stick 'butter' that is 100% milk-free I've found that Blue Bonnet Light works great for my cooking needs. It has a lot of water in it because it has no milk so it can make things softer than normal, but it works great. Plus, you can pretty much find this stuff at any grocery store.

Birthday Wishes

December seems to be a busy month of the year as far as celebrations go. There are quite a few birthdays and Josh and I have our anniversary as well. Then, of course, there is Christmas and New Year's Eve. It can be very hectic. I try to give a birthday shout out to everyone in the family when it' their big day, but seeing as how I have quite a few family members with birthdays, I would like to take this moment to wish them all a very happy birthday. For some, the birthday wish comes a tad late and for others, the wish comes far too soon. So here we go:

Happy Birthday Mina and Noah! My twin nephew and niece just turned one. I hope that it was a wonderful party for them. So begins their second year!

Happy Birthday to my brother from another mother, Josh! His birthday was also this past week. I hope he had an awesome birthday. Though my mom made him a cake and she's probably the best cook I know...soooo...I'm sure it was a great birthday. :-)

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law, Dianne! Though you are many states away, I hope you have a super wonderful birthday. I'm sure it's a great birthday simply because Jeremiah (my bro-her hubby) isn't over seas fighting the war right now.

Happy Birthday to my father-in-law, Paul! Don't worry Paul. I won't reveal your age for all to see. Will that work as my gift to you? :-) Just kidding.

Happy Birthday to Sean! He's the hubby of my friend Mandy. She's pretty much my sister so I guess that kind of makes him like a brother-in-law. He's an awesome guy and a total genius. I hope you have an awesome birthday!

Happy Birthday to Brittany, my cousin (2nd cousin, actually)! She just turned 17 years old. I can't believe it's been 17 years since she was just a tiny little baby. Wow...time flies! Thanks to the wide world of facebook, I have easy reminders of other family birthdays. It's nice. Though I really didn't have to be reminded of hers because I can remember holding her when she was just a tiny thing.

So I hope everyone had/has the best birthday this year. I truly wish you all the best.

Winter

WINTER

Tonight I got one of those phone calls from my mom that told me something bad was about to happen. She called me and told me she needed me to help with one of the horses that we have at her house. Winter, our rescue horse, was down. She couldn't get up, the poor girl. When we bought her, the people told us that she was only twelve years old, but with her being a rescue horse, we really had no idea what to expect of her with no knowledge of her history. A few weeks ago we had her teeth floated so that she could eat better and found out, as we suspected, that she was around twenty years old. We have only had her for a little over a year so you do the math. So we called the vet and he came out to see what he could do for her. We thought perhaps it was colic, but it turned out that she had a severe heart murmur and that at least one of her vital organs was massively enlarged. After giving my mom a break and sitting in the field with her, she finally decided to try and get up. I pulled and helped her every way I could, but she fell back over on her side from the effort. She tried to eat and tried to move, but her body just wouldn't let her anymore. She had the will, but not the strength. So we had to make the ultimate decision that no pet own wants to ever have to make. We had to put her to sleep. Though we have only known her a short while, it was all good times. She was a gentle old soul who gave many rides to many kids and she was well loved. We gave her the best home we could while we could. But age and time caught up with her as it usually does during first cold snaps of the year. It breaks my heart to see an animal suffer and it even harder to decide to take their life. But the vet said that there was nothing he could do for her. She just didn't have any muscle left. I feel awful for her pasture buddy, Mister, who is lost and confused now that she is gone. He stood, ever faithful, by her side until the end. It makes me wonder what heartache he feels by her loss. Come spring, we hope to find a new friend for him. I have had so many of these moments in my life with animals. I have three cows, one who is very old (Daisy) and as winter comes every year, I dread getting the call from my mom telling me that Daisy is dying. But luckily for my three ladies, they are very fat cows and seem to hold up during the bitter cold nights. They are tough old gals and I love them. So it wasn't a great night, but I know that Winter is in a better place. She's running in the great, green pastures of heaven now.

New Moon: Round 2

This past weekend, I escaped with my friend, Mandy, to go and see New Moon for our second round of late night enjoyment. Okay, so the movie isn't exactly a masterpiece, but it's fun to watch. The first time we went to see it, we sat in the balcony theater. It was lovely. I truly believe that once you sit in the luxury seating with full service (including food and drinks), you can never really return to the 'normal' theater seating. The first time we went, we had our tickets purchased a month and a half in advance. This past weekend we didn't plan. We just decided a few hours before that we should go again. We passed the kids along to our wonderfully understanding husbands and went to the latest showing. What we didn't think would happen is that nearly every sick person in the city would think that it is socially acceptable to go to a movie when they are hacking their lungs out with some ailment. Please tell me what part of a 'normal' human brain could tell someone that it is perfectly fair to go to a movie and cough so much that they can't even hear the movie just so they can pass along their sickness to the poor unsuspecting healthy people that thought it was safe to brave a movie in flu season? Seriously folks. I couldn't even concentrate on the movie because I was so sure I was going to catch some nasty bug and drag it home to my family. So did I enjoy the movie? Yes. I did. We both enjoyed it with our makeshift swine flu masks on through the entire movie. Wanna see the masks? Yes? Well...here you go...


It was funny in way that only two immature old farts like us could find it. Every time someone coughed we started laughing uncontrollably and raised our 'masks' a little higher. I also promptly went home afterward and commenced in a decontamination process that I can only hope was enough. Anyhow, though the acting wasn't great, the story was very close to the book and I plan on watching it once more with my mom (whom I willingly drug into the franchise not too long ago). Funny thing about that. I know that I watch these young actors and get all twitterpated when I see them on screen. Seriously, I actually giggled the first time Edward walked on screen. Yup. It was a real full out giggle. I didn't even know I was capable of giggling. So I feel a bit dirty-old-manish when I drool over the young characters. So I can't imagine what my mom must be feeling like. :-)
Anyhow, it was nice to get out again. I really am loving the whole 'movie scene' again. After two kids I feel as though I'm actually rediscovering a part of my 'self' again. (The-crazy-obsessed-with-movies self, that is) Funny story about the photo too. I didn't really think about this, but apparently cameras are not allowed in theaters. Later I thought to myself, "Um, duh Jessica." I suppose that is how pirating happens. So when we took our pictures during the credits we were reprimanded by one of the teenage theater employees. Don't worry though. He let us off with a verbal warning. It was hilarious.

How?

How on Earth are you supposed to reprimand your kid when he comes out of time-out looking like this?

Yeah...I couldn't keep a straight face and by the time I stopped laughing I couldn't remember what I was going to say to him.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Budding Artists

Not much has been happening lately as far as Alex and Abby goes. The days are still fairly nice out but I can feel the temperature shifting to the colder days. We actually had to wear coats outside today to keep toasty warm. But the part of the days when we spend our time inside, we are running out of fun new projects to do. One thing is certain though. These kids love love love their art time. I can't seem to keep enough paper in the house. So I decided to break out the old paints for them. I let them wear a couple of old t-shirts that I mow in and they thought that was extra special. I let them each pick a color of paint and a brush and they spent a good 20 minutes making art...abstract art...very very abstract art. I am trying to find new things for them to do. I'm pumped for Christmas so that we can start making construction paper angels, Santas, Christmas trees, and various other fun things. I've got my scissors ready and my cotton balls all in order. Bring on art time!

Notice Abby. She is very into it. She is getting more in to art than Alex is.

Happy Medium

My poor hubby is stuck in the extreme zone. He has been unemployed for a month and so as a result has been having completely idle days. No work. So he gets a call from our friendly neighborhood union and finds he has a job. He called me to relay the information about his new found employment. I could hear the disappointment in his voice almost immediately. It turns out that he has to work 1 1/2 hours away every day. Not only that, but he has to work Monday through Saturday. Mondays are ten hour days and Saturday is an eight hour day. Which means...no weekend. The poor guy is going to be exhausted every day. This is the sort of job where the people don't work to live. They live to work. We just purchased a nice cheap car for him to get to work every day about two months ago and we aren't entirely sure if this car is built for longevity like this. So we might be trading vehicles so that I will get the more unreliable car. Oh my dear van, I shall miss you if this be the case. The difficult part about having a job like this is that the Union doesn't see any job less than 1 1/2 hours away to be worthy of reimbursement. So we get to fill a vehicle up with gas daily. Ouch. So here we are. Either Josh will have no work at all or more work than a family man can take. I don't suppose we can complain though. It's work. And work is work. I just hope and pray for poor Josh. He's gonna have loooooong days and very short nights with no recovery in the middle. I know one thing is for sure. I won't be complaining about my job. Mine may be 24/7, but at least I get to spend it with the ones I love. I suppose that's how life can be...all or nothing. Where the heck is the happy medium? Oh yeah...i forgot. He got laid off from it.