My Favorite Chicken recipe..

I wanted to share a recipe real quick. I wish I had a picture to post because it's a very pretty dish.. Remember I don't measure..

You will need:
3-4 skinless chicken breasts
4 bell peppers (I get all the colors I can find)
large onion
3-4 squash
cherry tomatoes
honey
Worcestershire sauce
large baggies
garlic powder
skewers

I take my chicken and cut it into cubes, I fill a large zip lock bag with about a cup or 2 of honey a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, sprinkle a little garlic and add the chicken to the bag, mash it all up to cover the chicken. Let it sit in the fridge for several hours. The longer the better. I'd shoot for at least 4 hours..

I chop up my veggies the same way big enough for the skewer. do the same with the veggies as you did your meat. and place in a separate baggie. Let the chicken and veggies sit in the fridge for about 4 hours or more.. Then skewer them rotating however you'd like.. I always place a cherry tomato at the end to keep the other stuff from sliding off. I grill these at a med heat. You will of course want to cook until the chicken is done, but I do like my peppers onion and squash a little on the soft side. This is a very good chicken recipe. It taste great over rice. All those colors in the peppers and the yellow squash make the dish beautiful. Why only use the grill in the summer? As long as it's not raining, we continue to use ours through out the year.

Ahh Keeli and her words..

Today Keeli decided she wanted McDonalds for lunch.. On the way there she remembered she had a stash of suckers hidden in the passenger door of her daddy's truck. She got them out and counted them.. There were 5. She tells me she's just like a squirrel hiding nuts. I say yep.. you sure are.. Being Keeli, she has to make up a name for everything. She decided those suckers are her suck nuts...

A home for the Gingerbread Man

Every year we buy one of those ready to decorate gingerbread houses and every year I say, I'll never buy that again... It's supposed to be fun, right? Some how we end up smashing, mashing, and praying it'll stay together just long enough to get a finished photo. The picture looks the same every year. Same house, same candy, same crap. All Keeli thinks about is being able to eat the thing and all I think about it what a waste of money. This thing ends up being so heavy no wonder it takes concrete like frosting to hold it together, but the frosting adds another 10 pounds to the finished product. There has to be an easier way. Lighter would be better! And to make our own would be more fun. Next year!! It's on my list of must do's... Even if it's not a whole house.. I can surly make 10 gingerbread men and buy up 10 bucks worth of cheap frosting and hard candy to have fun with. After an hour of decorating I looked over at the house and there it laid.. The walls were buckled in and the roof was caved and by now all the frosting glue was had as a rock so it was stuck looking like a sad gingerbread house that had NOT survived a tornado. I figured heck, I'll toss the piece of poo and not even worry about it. Then I thought no I won't either! That's 8 bucks! I got the ole hot glue gun out and pried all those pieces apart and rebuilt our little house. It'll do... It's been a few hours since the make over and it's still standing..

We survived Thanksgiving..

We survived our 3 different Thanksgivings in 1 day. We have not done that in years. I finally put my foot down and decided enough was enough. This year we compromised and just did the very best that we could. When you have a large divorced family it really does ruin your holidays trying to make everyone else happy fitting it all in while you and your family suffer from one car ride to the next. I think next year I'll go back to putting my foot down. It was not a bad day and we enjoyed what little time we had at each house. But it would have been nice if we would of stuck with just one or 2... Keeli's blood sugars stayed with in a good range the whole day. That's my main goal. We all came home and crashed after eating our butts bigger and driving all over the place. I didn't wake up at midnight and race to the nearest Walmart to catch that 150 buck TV. I can't imagine those people who stood in line for 6 hours to get a TV. It's crazy what these stores do. They cram a thousand worn out ladies in a store and expect everyone to play nice. So far I've heard of one lady getting punched in the face for defending a little girl who had a toy snatched out of her hands by a grown loser. And a few bullets being shot some other place. WOW... This is what people have for a tradition... What is the goal? To see if they can make it out alive. There really needs to be a Black Friday video game. You win by how many deals you get and how many people you can kick and shove out of your way. This is not for me. I hate that I miss some deals. My husband and I just go out that night and we end up getting a few sale things. So far we have about 3 presents bought and that's it!! I need to get on the ball. Lindsi's birthday is up next so I will focus on that first and then get all my Christmas shopping done. I think I'll make some goodies to give the adults. I'll share whatever I decide to make...

Keeli's 3 month check up..

Keeli goes to the Endo clinic every 3 months... She rotates visits between her nurse and her doctor. Yesterday was the doctor. Her visit was good. She's at 55 pounds. Just over a year ago she weighed 38 pounds... She was 38 pounds at age 5 and age 6... 17 pounds pounds for her in a little over a year is great! It's amazing all the changes I can see in her from just a year ago.. Growing so well, and eating better are signs of a healthy child. We must be doing something right. Her A1C went up a little. It's at 7.1. I was upset to see it had gone up but for school age children they want it to be under 8. The doctor told me that when he sees consistent 6's then most likely after looking through a patients chart of numbers there are a ton of lows. Keeli has her lows and her highs, but she also has a good amount of normal in range numbers. That's what we thrive for. Every finger prick is a guessing game.. When you see that in range number it really is like winning a prize. I talked to her doctor about the artificial pancreas... I received an email from JDRF about it and I didn't know much of anything. The only thing I had read about a while back was a pancreas transplant and there is no way I'd be on board for that. Keeli can make her decisions when she grows up but for now I'm in charge. After he explained to me that it's not a transplant and that it actually is a mechanical device that is attached on the outside of her body and is smarter then I am I felt better about it. There is still kinks to work out I'm sure. But to know that one day there will be a device out there that is smart enough to read and supply insulin to adjust to ones body is amazing. I fear of malfunctions but there would be a sensor on it that would go off is something wasn't right with her or with the device. It's very interesting. I am scared to think of putting a lot of the care for Keeli into a machine but if this was to be something that could prevent long term effects of having diabetes then how could I not be in favor of it? I try not to think of all the things that can happen to her body when she grows up just from being a diabetic.. Those thought are on my mind, I just chose to filter then and push them as far back as I can. I know the damage diabetes does to the body but I also know that for as long as I'm here on Earth I'll do all I can to keep those things from happening.

Veggie Soup

I hate recipes that call for a million things. I don't cook like that and everything tastes pretty good. I'm always in a rush and we aren't fancy eaters.. It's chili time and soup time. I make mine the most simple way and everyone seems to think they are tasty. I never have any left overs.

Veggie soup..
I like hamburger meat in mine, but you can use beef tips.
I fry up about 3 pounds of meat ( we eat on this for a few days)
When I get frozen veggies I cook it longer. But honestly I usually end up grabbing cans. Terrible!

cut 3 large potatoes into cubes, I boil mine until they are done...
You can also just buy the can potatos.. I've used them when I'm in a hurry and they taste just fine..

Carrots get cooked as well first, but the same goes for the canned carrots... I cut up about 5 of those, or 2 cans..

Hamburger meat
2 cans potatoes
2 cans carrots
green beans
yellow can corn
peas
chop up a small onion (if you want)
Throw all your veggies in with your meat after the meat is drained, pour 2 large cans tomato sauce over it all fill 1 can half full of water and add it to your soup. I like mine thick, but if you don't then add more water. I bring all of this to a low heat simmer and I let it cook for about 2 hours. Fresh or frozen veggies I cook a little longer. Thats it.. No package or starter package... I promise it tastes great!! Fry up some corn bread to dip in it.... Yummy..

Chili.. easiest chili ever.
Hamburger meat cooked and drained
onion
bushes chili beans (2-3 cans) I HATE KIDNEY BEANS!!
tomato soup (2-3 cans) fill one half full of water and add it...
I sprinkle a little chili powder. My family likes the taste of the off brand chili powder better.
I boil my spaghetti noodles on the side because only 2 of us like the noodles in our chili..
I let this cook at a low simmer for about an hour.
We always use shredded cheddar cheese to top it.. It's great and literally takes maybe 5 minutes after you have you meat cooked.
Remember to buy some hot dogs for chili dogs, and some Fritos for Frito pies to have with your left over chili.

Dogs...

We have an outside dog, she's old as dirt... She was a gift from my husband because my other doggie Jake died.. I HAD to have another one. He searched and got me exactly what I wanted.. Me and Lindsi came home one day and he had the puppy all bundled up on a baby blanket sitting inside of a little wooden baby bed. She was so pretty... Fat 8 week old chocolate lab. I knew I wanted another lab because Jake was a lab and he was perfect. Jake being black and a male I decided I didn't want one that looked like him because he was too special to "replace" So I asked for the opposite. Well... I lived through total Hell with this dog. She tortured me at even moment she could. I'd come home to chewed up shit all over the house. She slept in the bed with me and she chewed the sheets, Lindsi's special Shea Shea baby doll. She crapped everywhere.. Pissed all over the place. NON STOP! She didn't listen to a word we said. As she got a little older I decided she needs to stay in her crate while Lindsi was at school and I was at work. I couldn't tell you how many people gave us that advice... They will be fine, they will get used to it.. It'll help to train them, they won't pee or poop in the cage... etc. Oh but ALL of those people had normal dogs, my dog was the spawn of Satan. She punished me every way she could for putting her in that crate. I had just found out I was pregnant and the dog only got worse. SHe attacked everyone that came through the door. Not by biting but the jumping and clawing and crazy shit that drives company up the wall... Then she started living up to her real name... She became a bitch. I'd come home in the freezing cold to a dog that would crap in her cage roll all around in it EAT it and the puke it back up.... YES! Almost everyday I'd have to drag that crap covered dog outside in the winter weather give her a bath and wash out her cage... I'd cry, I'd stress, there were many times I just wanted to open our front door and set the bitch free... The few times she would get away from us she'd run away.. My husband would chase her down the road into other people's yards. I knew she'd come back but IF she got hit by a car my luck she wouldn't of been killed just hurt and there we would be having to fork out a ton of money to fix a broken dog.. NO THANK YOU! We took her to the park and she'd pull us all over the place. We got her a choke collar so she wouldn't drag us, she still did. Her eyes would bug out of her head and turn blood shot red and she'd still pull... She'd bark in the house until you felt deaf.. We bought a shock collar just to break her of it. NOPE... It fried the hair off her neck and shocked her until she had vampire marks bleeding through her fur... She wouldn't stop for anything. Pointless. We couldn't use that anymore. Training is one thing but to continue to use it was pure cruel. Besides it didn't work so what was the point? Right before having Keeli I decided she needed to go outside. I didn't trust her around the baby and I didn't need that added stress I knew she'd cause. We live in a neighborhood with kids and stray dogs so she had to have a pin... She adapted so well to the cage. And I adapted so well to a dog free home. It was wonderful. No shit, piss, barking, jumping, hair, NOTHING.. Very relaxing. She's been out there for 8 years now. When we give her a bath or let her out, she runs right back into her pin. She's content out there. Keeli can pet her and I trust her now. The fur around her face is white, and if she has an over active day she walks with a limp. I know she's losing her hearing because I can walk all the way to the cage before she comes out of her house to greet me with a jump and a bark. She doesn't run off when I open her cage to feed her and give her fresh water, she doesn't go crazy and jump on me. For some reason this summer the flies were attacking her. They have never done that before. I was so angry watching them torture her. It was weird. Her ears were eat up, her nose was eat up and I was on a mission to get these pesky flies off my dog. I cleaned her wounds everyday with peroxide and ointment. I hung up bags of water and pennies all over her cage alone with fly traps. It all worked and with in days she looked back to normal. She let me take care of her everyday. It made me sad. Thinking about how bad I've hated her for all these years... I know she's old and I'm going to walk out to her pin one day and she's not going to come and greet me. I don't know what I'll do. I can't say I love her like a family member, that was Jake.. but I can say I love her like a pet.... Keeli asked for a dog of her own from Santa last year, she got it.. Her name is Eli, she's a Jack Russell... She is a whole other story!! Getting Eli has made me realize I'm not a dog lover like I thought I was.

Incredible Dave's birthday party..

I made some cute Minnie Mouse cup cakes for the Party!!

Kennedi turned 2.. She had her birthday party at Incredible Daves.. A party package for 10 kids 3 food choices and drinks for under 300.00... Not bad considering I can't throw a party for under 500 to save my life. Seems all of Keeli's parties hit near 1000.... We consider it a family get together since Keeli's birthday is in the summer. What better time to have a party.. Kennedi had a great time. The place was packed. The party helpers did a good job. They offered the bouncies and the obstacle course for the package... FUN.. sorta. how can anyone justify allowing 2 year olds and 10 year olds in the bounces at the same time? They said there are a lot of bloody noses.. Say what? If my little one got a bloody nose from a 10 year old kid I'd be livid... There needs to be age limits. Not to mention when you are paying for the party I say 30 minutes of party guests ONLY... The obstacle course is another story. it's plenty big for a ton of kids. It's up to the parents rather their child is old enough to join in on the madness. Walking around you hear people talking about getting as many tickets as they can so they can get something in the shop area.. it's crazy.. Spend 50 bucks on games to get enough ticked to purchase an eraser or a bouncy ball.... It's not the kids that go crazy over the tickets, it's the adults... The shop has everything from pencils to neon blinking signs... The party room is another story. I wasn't happy about it at all. 3 round tables, for 10 kids, a few extra seats. What about parents and grandparents and friends? There wasn't much elbow room and all the rooms are separated by dividers. We could hear other families singing Happy Birthday! This needs to be fixed. A little more space is necessary. Over all it was a good day and the food was great compared to Chuck E Cheese! Granted Chuck E Cheese is half the price... But that place is sooo yesterday right?

Today is World Diabetes Day!! How could we not do something for diabetes. Granted we live with it everyday. But still... For school we didn't do a lot. We did study about diabetes, and the pancreas. Keeli drew a slew of pictures and wrote the shortest story in history about diabetes... A local movie theater just re opened.. They dedicated today to JDRF... It was great. All movies, popcorn and drinks were 2.00 each. We asked Keeli's cousin to go. We had a good time. Keeli acts like these days are just another day. She is a child and she doesn't understand the importance of these days. But for me to make them a part of her life hopefully as she grows older she will become an outspoken volunteering advocate of this disease. I wish everyone understood how diabetes effects their bodies everyday, and the importance of doing all you can to take care of yourself so they won't have long term effects from this disease. Hopefully with more voices and more awareness so many children won't end up in the hospital deathly ill with parents not understanding what could be wrong with their child. Parents of every child should know the signs, adults should understand the signs. It's just not talked about. I believe the reason it's kept so hush is because there aren't real answers as to why someone has diabetes. The possible causes could drive you crazy. It's almost like they've thrown any and every MAYBE out there. For the ones that have it I'm not so sure it even matters why.. But for the ones that don't, we need answers... It fits that saying everyone hates... It is what it is.. it's diabetes. Once you are diagnosed with it, that's that. You have it for life. There is no reversing, there is no growing out of it, and there is no getting better. The only thing we have is faith in God that we can do our very best to provide our children with the proper health care they deserve.. It's crazy when you think about it. Your child gets diagnosed with a chronic disease and with in hours your home alone treating them, when 24 hours before you had no clue what type 1 really was. Giving shots, pricking fingers.. Talks of going to low, seizures, and DKA causing coma, when your too high. It's over whelming. What gets a parent through it is... our children. You learn. We are it. It's strange to celebrate diabetes.. but I try to look at it as, we are celebrating the fight against it, and the fight for a cure and prevention! Today was not a sad day.. We made it a great day!

The comforter is done..

I'll post a picture tomorrow of her little bed. It looks cute. Nothing professional but for my first time I think it's just fine. I took an orange pillow and added a felt cloud and elephant to it for her bed as well... If it all unravels tomorrow I'll just keep it to myself.

I've been thinking a lot about homeschool and wondering if Keeli knows enough. I'm sure all homeschool parents go through these feelings. I decided tonight to get her reading cards out and see how many words she knew.. We've not even looked at those in so long. Out of 55 cards she knew 53 and the other 2 she just needed help understanding it was a long or short vowel. I'm realizing just how screwed up the English language is. I never put a lot of thought into it. Now that I'm teaching a 2nd grader to read, and write, spell, and all the other things that go along with writing a proper sentence. It's difficult. Too many words sound alike but spelt different. Letters being said different for different words. PH sounds like a F. It can send a mom over the edge. I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed that as she matures she will understand there isn't a reason for it, it's just that way BECAUSE... We haven't done a fun project in a while and I need to get busy on that. First grade was more fun.. Less learning and more interacting. I think they learn while they have fun, but with Keeli she is so easily side tracked I am trying to keep it a little more strict this year. I just want her prepared. I honestly do think kids learn from each other. It would be easier for me to teach 5 kids apposed to just one. But we gotta do what we gotta do. She surprises me at some of the hard things she gets so fast and the simple things don't click. Those simple things are sometimes the hardest to teach. I wouldn't trade homeschooling for anything, except a cure for diabetes.. But I think I'll always question my ability to teach her as well as a professional.

Dive right in..

So tonight after dinner I'm going to attempt at taking a full size comforter and cutting it down to a toddler size comforter. Kennedi is now sleeping in a toddler bed and I'd LOVE to have this particular comforter match her bed. We bought Lindsi one for her room when she had a full size bed and now she has a twin. It needs to be cut down anyway. It may look like crap when I'm done but, I think I can fix any mauled up job I may do. If not well.. then it'll be trashed! I will learn how to sew. Off to search for a good video on how to thread a sewing machine...;)

Hair bows and sewing

I've decided to make some hair bows. Yeah, I know a million other moms are doing this very thing... But I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm enjoying it. Once I get several made I want to take them to the beauty shop and see if they sell. I figured I'd start small. My main goal is to sew. I love kids clothes. If I can get that crafty bug in me from hair bows maybe I'll get the crafty bug in sewing! I'm excited just thinking about it. Scary part is!! I've never even threaded a sewing machine! When my sweet granny passed away for some reason I was given her old sewing machine. It still looks like new besides the fact it's old as dirt. It's a table sewing machine, and I've used it to sit things on and I've not paid it attention since it was brought to me other then to dust it. So I opened her up and took a gander. It was pretty dusty and needed a good cleaning. I cleaned it up this weekend. It made me sad. Every time I scrubbed I knew I was scrubbing Granny's finger prints off. She used it to mend my Grandfather's pants and shirts and to make little doll clothes. I could see her hands working away while I was looking over it. That made me really want to learn twice as hard. What better machine to start with then hers.

Christmas Tree time

I decided I would drag the Christmas stuff out tonight. I usually don't set anything out until later in the month, but I thought ehh why not? It only gets to sit out for a month. We can enjoy it a little longer this way. I wanted to get it all done and make the house look pretty before my husband came home from work. I figured the 8 and 2 year old would pester me beyond belief not to mention the dog, but they were all tolerable. Thank you Wii, Ipad and doggie cage! I went up to the attic shoved a years worth of junk out of my way and dug through the Christmas things. We don't have a ton. At times I wish we did but then the clean up would be horrible. I brought all the boxes down... the the trees. 3 smaller ones and then our big one. Set the tree up. Don't purchase the prelit trees. They suck. We bought it 3 years ago and the 2nd year the lights were all out! So last year I headed out and bought more, LED.... I decorated out shelves and set a few more things out then it was time to decorate the tree... lights, ribbon, ornaments... I took my time and spread out every branch and I was excited and patient. Usually I just want to get it up and it be done. I hook up the lights before I put them on the tree and guess what! YEP, most were OUT... This infuriates me!! I sat down with the 2 year old in my lap and went through every flipping bulb.. Replaced any that looked burnt out and still over half the strands weren't working. I did this for over an hour... I decided screw it I'll just get more tomorrow. Why does this happen every year? It sure blows your Christmas spirit all up in the air.. Now it's late and I have empty boxes sitting all over the house, and green tree pieces everywhere.. The house is a disaster. So much for the hubby coming home to a pretty house... I really don't want to head out tomorrow to get more lights because then I'll see everything else I want to put on the tree... Last year I decided we'd go for a green, gold and brown look for the tree. I really like it. My husband is sick of the brown everywhere in the house but hey, it matches everything. Now instead of one of my 30 minute clean ups, I need to do it in 10 minutes.. because I'm ready for bed!!