Sickness!!

This past week did not go according to plan. That is the nicer way to put it. It started out with a very sick kid that ended up having to go to the hospital and was ultimately diagnosed with pneumonia. That was a very scary thing. Never had to deal with that illness with any of my 4 kids before! Talk about scary. I had visions in my head of going in to check on him and finding no breathing. Turns out that I made the decision to take him in at just the right time. The doctor told me that his illness could have taken a turn for the worse very quickly. And here I just thought he was having a particularly bad allergy attack. ANYWAY, I am very thankful for the steroids and the kill-any-bacteria antibiotics that were prescribed and for our nebulizer. All lifesavers. He is now safely on the road to recovery. We are not out of the woods yet, but at least we can rest a little easier. I will just be watching him until the yuckiness is completely gone.

Free corkboard!

A friend of ours came over from Hanford to give us an estimate on getting our bathroom floors replaced (he is a contractor) and had just done a project for a friend and had some fabulous leftover corkboard type material. He asked if I could use it and I said yes, of course. I would be crazy not to take it!! There were two good sized pieces, so I gave one to my 8 year old (Sophie) and the other one to my 14 year old (Abby.) My 8 year old was feeling kinda creative this past weekend so we pulled out one of the pieces and got to decorating. I did giant bubble letters which I became somewhat of an expert at in junior high and high school. lol. I think I did all my signatures that way, just for fun. Sooooo, we used my Stampin'Up markers and colored in the letters and then that didn't seem to be enough so we glittered them too. Very appropriate for  my lover-of-bling daughter. I think it turned out really cute. We are still waiting for the last little bits of glue to dry and then we will move on to making some sort of pushpins with covers. I am thinking of breaking out the polymer clay and making some cute little hearts or something. We shall see. Those are for another day...

Thank you Loren for the cork. You can be sure it is being put to some good use. We appreciate it!

Really yummy bread pudding I made for MOPS group

• •    Tomorrow morning is MOPS group meeting. I am excited to go because I missed the last couple of meetings. It just so happens that it is also my table's turn to bring breakfast. I chose to make this bread pudding because it was a big hit the last time I brought it. Came home with a totally cleaned out casserole dish. VERY easy and very yummy. I have made this for Christmas morning before but substituted eggnog for one of the cups of milk. Super good too. I will try to remember to post a picture when it comes out of the oven. But for now, it rests in the refrigerator until the morning. And now, so will I...

    
    
    
    
    

            

    
    
    **Update** Well would you look at that! I remembered the photo. Yay! Kinda looks like a pile of mush, if you ask me. Good thing it doesn't TASTE like a pile of mush or we all would have been in trouble. As suspected, it came home 93% empty. I ate the other 7% for lunch a few minutes ago, minus the sauce. I am a happy camper. :) 

    
    

    
    

    Avila Bread Pudding 

    
    

    8 eggs

    3 cups milk

    2 tbsp. coffee creamer, flavor of your choice (I used vanilla caramel by Coffee Mate)

    3/4 cup sugar

    1/4 teaspoon salt

    1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

    2 teaspoon vanilla extract

    8 cups soft bread cubes

  • VANILLA SAUCE:
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1-2/3 cups cold water
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

  Directions

  In a large bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add milk to the eggs along with sugar, spices and vanilla.

  Add bread cubes to large baking dish. Carefully pour egg mixture over bread cubes, making sure all cubes are submerged by the custard. Cover with foil and refrigerate 8 hours or up to 24

  Bake in preheated 350 oven for 50-60 minutes or until knife inserted near edge, comes out clean.

  Meanwhile, for sauce, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan. Stir in water until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat. Stir in the butter, vanilla and nutmeg. Serve with warm pudding.

SNOW!!!

     It is always a nice thing to be able to DECIDE to be in the snow. Something I am sure my east coast friends wish they could say. But, living in central California, we don't get it except for every 50 years or so. It has only happened once in my lifetime. Bummer, if you ask me. I like having snow around. Of course, I would probably feel differently if I had to shovel it from my driveway just to get in my car to go get milk or something. That doesn't sound like fun at all. Nonetheless, my family and my extended family met up near the giant sequoias to play and sled and make snowmen (see photo above- the effort of my 8 year old. Cute.) Even though we go every year or so, it never gets old. I hope that my kids will remember what fun we had up there. PLUS, they had the opportunity to throw snowballs at their dad and he had the opportunity to pretend that he was upset about it and then to retaliate. Haha! Funny to watch, that is for sure. Overall, a great day and a nice little trip for our long MLK weekend. :)

Still haven't finished my card for tonight's stamp gathering. I am not sure what I am waiting for. I need some focused inspiration NOW or I will run out of time. Not a good thing. We shall see if the cardmaking fairy will visit my house this morning. Let's hope...

My baby's birthday

Days like tomorrow are hard for me. My fabulous oldest daughter is turning 14. I seriously cannot believe how time flies. It is kind of amazing actually. I just wanted to say how proud I am of her and the awesome young lady she is. I grow more proud of her every day. She is intelligent, beautiful, funny, kind, thoughtful, strong and sure of herself. All great qualities that I always dreamed my daughter would have. It is such a joy to have her in our lives. I am so blessed to be her mother and we are ALL blessed to have her here on this planet with us. :)