august days

Smiley Grace

Nathaniel grabbed my camera and took a few pictures...

The house nathaniel built with his creature on top...I thought it was part of the house...it looked pretty cool

Joshua and his house...front view and side view...it's not really a house, it's a hanger for Star Wars ships he's built

Nathaniel with his house

Grace with a couple of zucchini we picked from the garden this morning.

Inside Out Pizza

Inside Out Pizza (from Lacie Benton~Winters)

Crust:
5 c. flour
2 T. sugar
2 t. salt
2 T yeast (2 pkgs)
1 ½ c. warm water
½ c. warm milk
2 T melted butter

Filling:

Any pizza toppings you desire. Can include pizza sauce in it and have extra for dipping, or can just have it for dipping and not put any inside the pizza.

Mix dry ingredients (use only ½ total amount of flour) and then add wet ingredients. Beat on medium for 3 minutes. Slowly add remaining flour. Change to dough hook when needed. Let rise 1 hour. Roll out, put filling on half of dough. Fold over and seal. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes. Brush top with egg whites if desired.

This is another one that Joshua will take cold in his lunch to school.  It freezes pretty well, too.  I usually get 2 pizzas out of this and we've eaten one and froze the other for later.

Dad's new Job

We got these clippers at Christmastime with the idea that I would be the one cutting the boys' hair.  But I wanted to wait until summer so if I did a horrible job, it wouldn't matter because it was summer and the shorter, the better, right?  But Grace would've been way to helpful, so Dad decided he'd do it. 

I decided he's hired and it save us about $20 every 6 weeks or so to have him cut the boys' hair.

Why our Summer has been a little different...

We had plans for this summer and none of them involved hospitals for once (the past few summers I've either been recovering from surgery (gall bladder last year), pregnant (Grace 2009), recovering from a miscarriage (2008), nursing (2007) or pregnant (Nathaniel 2006).  This year it was Brian's turn.  His Crohn's disease (which he was diagnosed with in 2007 and had a flare up in 2009), reared it's ugly nasty head again...and he was in the hospital twice up here. Once within 2 days of the semester ending (for a total of 5 days) and again in June (only 3 days that time).  Surgery was decided upon.  We headed south on the 11th of July and stayed with his brother in Woodland.  His surgery was the 12th in Sacramento at UC Davis Medical Center.  They estimated he'd be in 7 to 10 days...and figured most likely it would only be 7.  He left on the 23rd.  We spent a few days at his brother's again after the surgery so that he wouldn't have to make the 5 hour trip (each way) home and back and home again.  He had two doctor appointments that next week, so it was best to stay.  But we'd not planned on staying that long when we left. 

The surgeon he had was wonderful.  She has done a lot of Crohn's surgeries.  And she told him he was one of the worst she'd ever seen.  He had resections done in two places in his bowels and had a total of 12 inches removed.  He had them take a picture in surgery (I won't post those here) and ended up with 31 staples. 

The kids missed us, I think.  I'm sure Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma really did, as they took care of them for us!

One bonus was being able to spend time with Brian's sister, Cindy.  She was out visiting from Kansas and doing some rehab after a stroke she had in the Spring.  She and I enjoyed Terry & Theresa's pool :)

Recovery is a slow process, and as a nursing student, he understands that, but still thinks he should be healing faster.  And school starts on August 15th so he's nervous about that.  Lots of other things went on with his surgery and hospital stay, but this is the basics.  He shouldn't have issues with it now...hopefully...at least not for many years.  What medications he may need to be on are not determined yet, and nothing has been said about a special diet.  But it really making us think about what we eat and how much of certain things we eat.  So now, we're hoping that Summer 2012 will be one without medical type complications :)

An Unplanned Adventure

Yesterday I'd told the kids we'd go to the park and have a picnic and eat lunch.  Finally we got ready, went and mailed a package to Geddy, and then headed to the park.  There looked like there was a birthday party already going on.  So I went for plan B - let's go up to Grease Flats and wade in Etna Creek after we eat our sandwiches (a fun thing we did often last summer).  By the time we drove up Old Etna and parked, Grace was sound asleep.  So I handed out the sandwiches and said how about we just drive up the mountain a bit.  So we did...and ended up at the top :)  Grace woke up when we parked.  We got out, looked at the amazing views, hiked a few yards on the Pacific Crest trail, crossed the road and looked out the other way and then came home.  We live in such a beautiful place!  Much better than our trip up there several years ago when Grandpa's car ended up with some flat tires...

Favorite Summer Recipes

I love this cake at any time, but it is one that I always have to make at least once a summer.  Last year Mom and I tried it with orange jello and orange juice.  It was pretty dang good.  This year I used a strawberry cake mix instead of yellow.  Strawberry Lemonade cake - yum!! But the original is still the best. (The picture is my Strawberry Lemonade cake that I made last weekend).  Mom's recipe actually calls it Lemon Gelatin Cake, but I always refer to it as:

Lemonade Cake
1 pkg. yellow or white cake
1 3 oz. pkg of lemon jello
1 /2 c. oil
4 eggs
1 c. water

Combine cake mix, jello, oil and water.  Beat for 4 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Pour into a greased oblong  (9x13) pan, Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (give or take). Cool and poke holes in the tope with a fork.  Then pour glaze over the top.

Glaze
2 c. powdered sugar
2 T lemonade concentrate, thawed (I usually end up using more - closer to 4 T)

Whisk together and pour over the top.

This picture came out a little blurry...but it shows the glaze on top well :)

Figured I should put a dinner recipe as well.  One that we like - hot or cold - Joshua will take a wedge to school in his lunch the next day!  When I had Nathaniel, some friends from church brought us dinner and this is what they brought.  Jeannie Martinez was like a second mom (or an aunt she told me once because she really wasn't old enough to be my mom) to me in Winters and I often ate Sunday dinner with them before I got married.  She told me she got this recipe from Pampered Chef.

Taco Ring

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. ground beef or turkey

2 tbsp. Southwestern seasoning mix (taco seasoning spices)*

4 cups shredded cheddar cheese

2 tbsp. water

2 pkg. refrigerated crescent rolls

1 md. green bell pepper  (optional)

1 cup salsa

3 cups shredded lettuce

1 md. tomato

Sour cream

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 375°F. In frying pan, cook and stir beef over med/high heat until meat is no longer pink. Remove from heat and drain. In bowl, combine meat and taco seasoning. Add cheese into meat mixture. Add water and mix well. On a baking stone, or pizza pan, arrange crescent triangles in a circle with bases overlapping in center and point to the outside. There should be a circle of about 5" in diameter in center. Scoop meat mixture evenly onto the widest end of each triangle. Bring outside point of triangles down over filling and tuck under wide ends of dough at center. (Filling will not be completely covered) Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cut off top of pepper and discard membranes and seeds. Fill with salsa. Place pepper in center of ring (optional).  Arrange lettuce and tomato around pepper. Garnish with sour cream. 

Of course, as Brian always says, I can't follow a recipe exactly.  I add sliced olives and a can of yellow corn (drained of course) to the meat mixture.  You could add a (drained) can of black beans as well.  Since my kids aren't thrilled with putting salsa on their food, we never do that step.  But I like it best with sour cream on top.  And in addtion to chopped lettuce and tomato, if avocados are reasonably priced when I make it, those go nicely with it too :)

Now, better go get the last pan of cookies (banana chocolate chip) out of the oven so we can go have a picnic at the park.

Fishin' in the Pond

She wanted to come see the fishies too...and was sad that we wouldn't let her have a rod...that would've been dangerous!

The boys went fishing at Stacher's Pond across the street this morning.  Trying to get all the fun things in before Daddy's surgery next week.

Joshua caught the first fish...Nathaniel's pole caught 2 more (with Dad manning it).

Joshua got his pole & creel for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa...Nathaniel is using Mommy's old pole.

After catching the fish, we tossed them back in.  Maybe they'll be smarter the next time a funny looking fly plops in the water :)