It was yummy!

I just got done eating the sausage dinner and it was really good. I only used 1 pound of sausage and it definitely needs 1 1/2 pounds. I had my mom and sister over to be my critics and they both liked it. So this recipe is a keeper.

What's for Dinner?

A friend of mine posted on her blog that she is in a cooking rut. Boy, do I know the feeling. Every week I ask Jason to help me decide meals for just the nights that he is home. This is an ongoing joke in our house. He either comes up with the hardest, most time consuming meal or can't think of anything. LOTS of help- let me tell ya. The nights that he isn't home are really hard to. It's almost impossible to find meals that are appetizing to a two yr old, five yr old and mom. Not to mention low in calories for those of us that are trying to shed a few pounds and get fit. So her idea is to TAG everyone that reads her blog to post a recipe. Then we will all have yummy new recipes to try without searching cook books or web sites. This is a recipe that was on Good Things Utah. I am cooking it tonight. If it ends up not being good I will let you know, but it looked great on TV. So if you are reading this you are tagged to post a recipe on your blog so I can add new recipes to my menu.

Sensational Sausage Supper Recipe

prepared by Angel Shannon,

http://www.cookingwithangel.com/

1 – 1½ lbs. sausage (ground or link)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large green peppers, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 ½ tablespoons Italian Seasoning
1 teaspoon seasoning salt
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Sprinkling of dried parsley
1 can ( 6 oz.) tomato paste
2 ½ cups water
½ cup chicken broth
1 cup uncooked white rice (not instant)
1 can (2.3 oz.) sliced olives, drained
Grated Cheddar and sour cream

Preparation:Brown sausage in large deep skillet or Dutch oven. If using link sausage cut into pieces. Add onion, green pepper and celery, sautéing until halfway cooked. Drain excess fat. Add remaining ingredients except olives, cheese and sour cream. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 25-30 minutes or until liquid mostly absorbed. Stir in olives and top with cheese; cover until cheese melts. Serve topped with sour cream. Makes 8 servings.

For those of you who are counting calories I calculated this out and it is only 200 calories per serving! That is great for a dinner!

The Big Top

The school was kind enough to let all the students know that the circus was going to be in Salina and sent home a free kids ticket. I would have just not told Sekoya that the circus was here and she wouldn't have known any different. Thanks to the school I am now $100 poorer. No, I could have just told her we weren't going, and she almost didn't get to go. She worked so hard over the weekend cleaning and doing extra jobs so she could earn her way. Then the morning of the circus- Tuesday- she asked if we could do nail polish. After I told her not this morning she got into it anyway and painted her sister's nails black and got black nail polish on her WHITE shirt. It was a Halloween polish set. So I was faced with the dilemma of letting her go to the circus or not. We had invited our neighbor to go with us so if we didn't go that would be letting her down as well as Katera who kept asking "Me go to the circus?" I did the unspeakable and let her go anyway. I would just have to figure out another punishment.

Thank goodness the kids had free tickets because my admission was- $16. We got there early so they could ride the animals. They each went on a pony ride and an elephant ride- $34. Well, Katera didn't go on the elephant. She would barely stand next to the ring so I could take a picture. She was scared to death of the elephant. We tried to put her on and she screamed and cried "NO Elephant!" She had a death grip around my arm and was not letting go for anything. I guess you can't blame her for being scared of something that is about a hundred times bigger than her! We found our seats and they immediately started selling cotton candy which they all HAD to have. So three of those- $9. Then at intermission they HAD to have one of the crappy, fall-apart-the-next-day, dollar store quality toys which cost $20. That was when I put my foot down and said NO MORE!! I would not buy snow cones, popcorn or any other thing they were selling for an arm and a leg. Sekoya threw a little bit of a fit until I reminded her that she was lucky she even got to go to the circus at all! They had lions and tigers, jugglers, hula hoop girls, dare devil motorcycles, pink and blue poodles, a bear, a really BAD magician, acrobats, and of course the elephants. From an adult perspective the whole show was pretty lame, but from the kid's perspective it was the most amazing thing they had seen -as you can see from their expressions. I was so impressed that we made it to Salina, all through the circus and back home without Katera having any accidents. We did visit the bathroom about five or six times though. After the circus they were STARVING, so we stopped at Burger King- $15.

That brings us to a grand total of $94 for 2 1/2 hours of entertainment! But as they say- the smiles on their faces and the joy it brought them is PRICELESS!!

Proof I was there. Katera wanted to take a picture. I have to lean to get in front of the lens so I will be in the picture.

Growing up

I just realized this last week how fast my girls are growing up!! Sekoya has been acting so mature and grown up. Katera is now out of diapers. Where did my babies go?! I've been totally forgetting to put all the cute things they say on here. I don't want to forget these!

Sekoya- Where do I start with this kid..... she is so fiercely independent it is sometimes a bad thing. She is such a free spirit and full of life. She is constantly getting into things just because she wants to try something by herself or she is curious about it. This kid can NOT put anything where it belongs- shoes, coat, back pack -whatever. Where ever she takes it off is where it lands, even if that happens to be at a friend's house or outside. It is lucky I ever keep track of her shoes. She hates to clean up. You would think I hurt her or something when I ask her to clean up her messes. Although she is getting a lot better. She is a social butterfly and has to have a friend over every day. She gets really upset when she is not included in everything her friends do. She doesn't think they can have any other friends besides her! She is such a picky eater and only eats enough for a bird. She won't eat any vegetable, potatoes, or stuffing. Her little sister out-eats her every day. She is so boy crazy! The other day she came home from school and told me that a boy in her class had hugged her for the very first time. When I asked how that made her feel she said, " It felt like my heart was going to explode!" Oh dear! What do I have to look forward to? She is a VERY good big sister. She lets Katera play with her and her friends all the time. She even lets her tag along to friends' houses sometimes. She does get tired of her and torments her sometimes, but overall she is so good with her. They were playing a game where you needed a password and Katera said the password was "Sissy is my best friend". Sweet!! I have started making her earn toys and activities that we do instead of just automatically doing things for her. She was getting to be a bit spoiled. The circus is going to be in town soon and I told her she had to earn the privilege to go. So on Saturday when it was our house cleaning party she jumped right in and helped with the vacuuming, mirrors, and bathrooms. When I asked her why she was being so helpful she said, "I just gotta get to that circus!" She really grasped the concept!

Crazy hair after taking the hair do out.

Miracle- never seen before- Sekoya cleaning and helping with chores.

Katera- Oh, my baby... she is so much like her sister, but so different too. She is definitely Sekoya's shadow. Anything Sekoya says or does Katera copies. She loves, loves, loves her sister. She hates it when we drop Sekoya and Hadyn off at school. As we drive away she asks if she can go to "cool" (school) too. I tell her when she gets bigger she can. We sit in silence for a couple of blocks then she says, "I'm a big girl now?" She is soooooooooo not my baby anymore. We have officially gotten rid of diapers. She wears panties every day with only the occasional accident. She thinks she is a big girl too. She won't ever let me put her in the shopping cart or hold my hand. She has to do everything herself even if she can't do it and is screaming in frustration. She has finally-after two years-decided that it is OK to cuddle. I get her in bed every morning for about 1/2 hour watching either Max and Ruby or Dora. And if those aren't on we're in big trouble. She is the munchiest kid I have ever seen. I feed her a meal and ten minutes later she wants a "nack" (snack). But she doesn't like cookies, cakes, and candy... she is strange. She likes nuts, dried fruit, fruit roll ups, and bread. At least she is snacking healthy right? She hates to get ready for the day- mostly brushing teeth and doing hair. Our Christmas elves brought her an electric "poobrush" (toothbrush) though and that has helped. She loves to help with anything around the house- sweeping, mopping, you name it. She cleans up toys so good singing the clean up song as she goes. She absolutely loves nursery. All through sacrament she asks if she can go to class now. If we are ever in church clothes not on a Sunday she asks if it is time for church. She is such little jabber box for not talking until she was about 18-20 months.

Crazy hair after the 'do' is out.

Katera is always the helper.

Still my baby, sucking her two middle fingers!

Dentist

We went for Sekoya's dentist check up yesterday. She is cavity free again! Yay!! I'm so glad she has such good teeth. I don't know how well she would do getting a filling. She is great with the cleanings. She doesn't cause a fuss at all. The dentist office has a wall of fame for the kids that are cavity free. They take a picture and put it on the wall. Sekoya's picture from last year was on there and she was wearing the exact same shirt she wore to the dentist yesterday. How funny is that? And what are the chances? Katera was watching intently the whole time Sekoya's teeth were getting cleaned. She proclaimed that she wanted her teeth done. So when Sekoya was done we put her in the chair. She was really calm as the technician gave her a ride up and down in the chair. Then she showed her the air, water, and suction tools. She filled up a cup and would let Katera suck the water out with the suction hose. I even got her to put it in her mouth and feel how funny it is when it sucks your cheeks and tongue. Then they filled rubber gloves with air and water. Who knew the dentist could be such an entertaining place? Then the dentist came in to look at her teeth. She immediately started scrambling off the chair saying no, no, no. She would not sit in the chair and let him look in her mouth. I held her and then she would open and let him see her teeth. He said her teeth looked good too. I guess it is my turn next since I haven't been in about two years. We don't have dental insurance so it is really hard to fork out all that money. But I do have pretty good teeth so I don't worry too much.

A few Job Perks!!!!

I have not made any posts for a while, but I was thinking today about how lucky I am to have the career that I have. I have a GREAT job that supports our family very well and we get to live in place that we love. In these times it seems you need to feel blessed just to have a job...not a job that you LOVE and a job that pays good too.
Ashley tells me all the time that my job is NOT work and that I just play all the time. I am very lucky to be able to do a little playing in all of my travels. I have some really good customers that I have made some really great friends with.

This year I have been able to do some fun things while out working. So I decided to post a couple of pictures of a few of the things I got to do this year. I have a TON of pictures so I just posted a couple so I can look and remember that I should be thankful to have a great job.


This pictures is of the start of a float trip Fly Fishing in Missoula Montana. It was a GREAT time

More Fly fishing


This is jumping in a plane that my customer owns to go fly up the coast to golf


Getting in the plane.
More golfing. This is another course. I actually have LOTS of pictures of all the golfing that I do, but I did not want to post all the pictures. I have played some AMAZING golf courses this year all across the Western US. I am thinking Pebble Beach this year!!
This is me and one of my really good clients that has season tickets to USC Football. This was the USC-Ohio State game early in the year. to see 97,000 fans in one stadium was incredible and we had a fantastic time!
The LA Coliseum is a pretty cool place to watch a football game. There is lots of history at this field so it was fun to be there.
This was Turkey Hunting up in Northern California. This was a fall hunt and not the traditional time to go out and hunt turkeys, but I already have plans to go back in April and we are going to kill some spring Turkeys.

This is also up North of Sacramento in Northern California. Wood Ducks are hard to find in Utah, but we found PLENTY up here.

This was my second trip to a friends Duck Club in California. We just go out and shoot to our hearts content. This trip we shot Speckled Belly Geese, Snow Geese, Pintail, Widgeon, Ringnecks, Teal and just had a great time!

More Ducks and Geese


Well, That is enough pictures for my post....Ashley will just say I am rubbing it in that this is what I get to do while I am working.....and maybe I am!!

It was a good year and the company is going strong and things are going well.....This is to hope that 2009 is as good as 2008 was!!!!

Catch up

Ok, I have totally lost my drive to blog since I can't find an easy way to print it. I have had several helpful suggestions, all of which will take A LOT of extra time. I just haven't been up to that project yet. But, enough of my whining.

This last week I was playing catch up. My house was filthy, all the beds needed new sheets, bills needed to be paid, etc, etc. And then there was a day off of school on Wednesday. How stupid is that? Why didn't they just take Friday off and make it a four day weekend with Martin Luther King day? They really should consult parents when making the school schedules! ;)

I just have to say what sweet kids I have. Sekoya is such a good girl. The whole time I was sick and continuing last week she has been so helpful. When I was sick I would make her run downstairs to get a diaper for Katera and anything else I didn't have energy to do. Once after a morning bath she even got Katera dressed- diaper and all. She is growing up so much. Last week was such an enjoyable week with my kids. They have been getting along so well -for the most part. Katera is so fun and has finally grasped the concept of potty training. She was having accidents every twenty minutes- right after I would have her sit on the toilet. Then I left her with Grandma Sindy for an hour and she finally did it. I came home and Grandma said she went potty twice!! She has been doing great ever since. She still isn't to the point to recognize when she needs to go and tell me. But I take her potty once every hour and she goes every time. I think we are well on our way to no more diapers. Happy day at our house!!

One fun thing we did last week was make GAK from Melissa's recipe. The girls love to put ingredients in anything so this was a hit. Not to mention the 45 minutes of entertainment with it after is was made. We got cookie cutters out and cut out shapes, made bracelets, and just squished it in our fingers. I also bought the girls some little Squirmles at the checkout stand at WalMart. Does anybody else hate those junk "have to have" things at the checkouts? My kids think they need something every time! They were pretty cheap and Katera definitely deserved a reward so I caved. They had quite a bit of fun with them. Sekoya kept torturing Katera and crawling it on her head.

Kidney stones + infection = one sick mommy

After I got home from my shopping trip I started feeling like a cold was coming on. Jason took over and got the girls to bed. I started feeling worse and worse with major abdominal pains. I toughed it out for about two hours with major pain and the constant feeling that I had to pee. I finally couldn't take it any longer so I had Jason take me to the emergency room. We've now gone to the ER twice in the last two months when we have only had three ER trips our whole 12 years of marriage. They did a cat scan - cha ching$$$$- and quickly diagnosed it as kidney stones. They actually couldn't believe that I was passing the one that I was since it was so big. They also told us that I have several others that will probably need to be blasted. They hooked me up to morphine, which only brought my pain level down to about a 4 out of 10. They had to put another pain killer in the IV before it finally subsided to where I could sleep. I slept off an on for about two hours while they ran two bags of fluid through me and then sent me home with pain pills.

Sunday was supposed to be both of our first times teaching our new classes- Jason Sunday school for 14-15 yr olds, and me the Primary 8-9 year olds. I was still pretty dozy on pain pills so we got out of our callings for the day. I slept most of Sunday then Jason had to leave me for the first time in almost a month on Monday. I figured I would be just fine. I didn't think kidney stones would have any side effects. But I was NOT fine. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I continued with violent cold chills, hot fevers and barely enough energy to get out of bed. I had lots of help from great friends, neighbors, visiting teachers, and family. Let me just say- I LOVE our new ward. They took such good care of us. I finally decided that this was not just side effects from kidney stones and got into the doctor on Wednesday. By this time I had told Jason that I needed him home so he changed his flight home a day earlier and came home Wednesday night. The doctor diagnosed me with a kidney infection and started me on antibiotics. By Saturday I was doing much better. Nothing like completely losing a week though. I can honestly say that kidney stones are worse than child birth. I have always heard that, but I can say from personal experience! I've had the children.... why couldn't Jason get the kidney stones so he could have an idea what it's like?

Shopping trip to Provo

Jason gave me a couple of gift certificates to the University Mall for me to be able to go pick out some new clothes. I wanted to get up there and use it while all the stores had their winter stuff on clearance. I had planned on leaving both girls with Jason and just going with my sister- Cortney. When I was getting ready to walk out the door Sekoya got really upset and begged to go with me. I couldn't leave her behind like that. She never wants to go with me. So I grabbed a DVD player and some movies for her and told her that we were going on a BIG GIRL shopping trip. She was such a good girl. I drug her from one end of the mall to the other and back again trying to find the right deals. She did ask to make a Build a Bear, which when I told her no she didn't whine. We had a Subway sandwich for lunch, a cinnamon pretzel, and a stop and the photo booth. I was really surprised when she said she had fun, but I am really glad she came with me. I like having her along as a friend and not a child. Oh, on the way home she fell asleep in the back seat. Occasionally she would wake up and assure us that she was not asleep, she was just resting her eyes.

St. George trip

Christmas Day