This & That

**Sniff....**

On his way to commissioned officer's training in Alabama.

The Snow Gratitude Factor

First off, happy birthday to my grandboy, Frederick! He's 4 years old today. As an aside, anyone seen the Bill Cosby routing about the 4 year old Jeffery? So funny.

We made a quick run to the cabin last weekend. My poor husband has withdrawals if he has to go too long without being in the woods, and since this is The Dark Time, cabin runs are especially necessary. 

We have more snow up there now. You might remember that right after Christmas, there wasn't much at all, but we've been very fortunate to receive a bunch in the past month. While we're still in the drought cycle, this improves the prospects for the reservoirs around here.

Some of us wiled away the hours with our good friend Louis L'Amour.

While others of  us washed dishes with melted snow that we heated on both the wood stoves and the regular stove. Still no running water at the cabin, which means that things have not sufficiently melted down underground for it to flow from the well. We are really hoping that there isn't a break in the line, which would be a huge mess to fix. I guess we'll find out come spring, but for now I was grateful that there was snow to melt so we could have clean dishes. 

"I'm a Florist!"

Time for a little college update. The Girl is taking a Floral Design class to fill an fine art general ed requirement.

She is enjoying the class (I think) and it has a lab with it where she gets to put together actual floral arrangements.

I got to see this second one in real life when we went for LBoy's swearing in and we stopped at her apartment.  She texted me pictures of her arrangements with the caption, "Look! I'm a florist!" 

One Year Older

So last week I had a birthday. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've gotten to the point where I kind of wish birthdays would just disappear. Yeah...another year older. But if I had to have a birthday, it was a nice day. 

It started off with SD Boy checking in early with an Isaac fix for me. He texted me this picture with the caption, "Happy Birthday, Grandma!" 5 of my 6 children checked in with birthday wishes. Pretty good percentage. The Girl wanted to know if she was the first one to call me and when I told her that her brother had beat her, she was very indignant. "He texted me yesterday wanting to know if your birthday was yesterday or today, so technically I win because I told him when it was!" 

Later in the morning, I discovered a loaf of Great Harvest bread on my doorstep with balloons attached to it and this "garden" of nice wishes from my church girls. It was very sweet and those balloons are still afloat!

I had lunch with my mom and my husband cooked a Japanese special for dinner so there was no cooking for me. Then to top it off, I got this beautiful bouquet from Irene. Love her.

So if I had to have a birthday, this was a good day. :)

Creamy Chipotle Pasta with Sausage

The Girl and I like pasta quite a bit. The guys, not so much, but this recipe was one that everyone thought was good. I knew going into it that I was riding a pretty fine line for all concerned. It was pasta, which might set the men off, but it also had chipotle peppers in it, which could start The Girl's "I hate Mexican food" alarm off. It was acceptable to everyone, which is a success in my book. The chipotle peppers give it just a nice little zing.

Creamy Chipotle Pasta with Sausage

• 1 pound Italian sausage links, cut into 3/4" slices ( you can use whatever kind you want, even turkey)
• 1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms (those who know me know that these didn't make an appearance)
• 1 medium sweet red pepper, chopped
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (comes in a small can in the Mexican food section of the store)
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (I used a combination of whipping cream and half & half)
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend, divided
• 2 cups frozen peas
• Hot, cooked thin spaghetti (I think I used linguine)

Cook sausage in a large skillet over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Remove and keep warm.

Saute mushrooms and red pepper in oil in the same pan until tender. Stir in the brown sugar, chipotle pepper, chili powder, salt and marjoram; cook 1 minute longer.

Add cream, stirring to loosen browned bits from pan. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2-3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Reduce heat.

Add 1 cup cheese; cook and stir until melted. Stir in sausage and peas; heat through. Serve with pasta, sprinkle with remaining cheese. Before you serve, have your children pose with the finished dish. Makes 6 servings.

Stuff This Week.

Somewhere along the line, someone lied to me. Someone led me to believe that the fewer kids I had at home (and living in the Mid-west, apparently), the more time I would have to leisurely persue only things I wanted to do. I'm not sure how it happened, but I seem to be busier than ever with only one child in permanent residence. Seriously?

This week ran the gamut from fun birthday stuff to playing for the middle school choirs, to running PB to and from school, to church visiting, to getting ready for an overnighter at the cabin (still no water.....gahhhhhhh!!!), to preparing a lesson to teach to the church girls on Sunday. Let me break it to you young mothers out there. Just get yourself dialed in to the fact that life does not ease up or slow down. It might not be little kids and diapers and endless practices, recitals and ball games. It's different, but it's just as busy in its own way. Maybe this should have been a Stuff I Know topic, lol. 

I have made it a priority to stay caught up with my Project Life album. If nothing else gets done, I at least have the everyday documented. So I got a couple of weeks of that done to get current. 

I also finished off that Christmas card kit that's been on my desk since December, and by that I mean that I made some cards and then just looked at those uber-vintage papers I didn't care for all that much and moved what I hadn't used to the "circular file" under my table. I just let it go.

I did get one regular layout done for the BPC Inspired Scrapbooking class I'm taking this year. Fortunately, the requirements for that are simple. One truly connected story a month documented. This is about little Roger's baby blessing in December. In Mormon parlance, a baby blessing is similar to a christening. The topic for the month in the class was "People" and these are a lot of the people who are nearest and dearest to me. This layout is done with a Scrapbook Generations kit and sketch.

So there was a little playing this week, but lately I'm feeling like I'm squeezing in tiny snippets of time doing it, which I guess is better than nothing, right?

Changes.

I've been wanting to post about this particular topic for a long time, but every time I sat down at the computer to do it, I couldn't. I felt very conflicted and struggled to put my thoughts down, but it's really time to get it documented, so here goes.

My son, Collin, aka College Boy, Lawyer Boy and/or Son #3, and his wife are embarking on a big change in their life. Explanation requires a bit of background. When he was in law school, Collin's interests ran to topics like international law, cyber law and the law of armed conflict. He is and always has been my crusader...the righter of wrongs, the campaigner for fairness, so his choice of profession is really no surprise. He had a professor he really clicked with who had been an Army JAG (military lawyer) for 20 years, who shared his interests and gave him a lot of encouragement and support. Long story short, I have a son who is now an Air Force JAG, who will be leaving next week for officer's training and will then be stationed in Omaha Nebraska. While he does this, my DIL will be moving in with us and will finish out her year of teaching at our local elementary school.

It's a big step, a big change for them, for us. We have so enjoyed having them close here for these past few months. We have been able to have weekly Sunday dinners, drop ins just to visit, casual "come on over for movie/ice cream/fresh hot bread/cookies" nights, time spent in her classroom. It was just really nice.

Because of his law interests, my son is really looking forward to this. I get that. He is looking forward to seeing new places and learning new things. I want to be supportive. I have never been one of those clingy mothers who would throw her arms around her kid's knees to be dragged along as they started school years or went on their church missions, or went off to college. OK, maybe I wanted to in my head, but in real life I've always had a little more self-control. I want my kids to be independent and follow their dreams. I want them to be happy in their lives and do what they want to do.

But this is hard for me, and my boy gets that. I will now have 4 of my 6 children living in the mid-west. On the up-side, he and SD Boy will only be a couple of hours apart. That will be really nice for both of them.

 

So....the end of last week, we made a trip down to Utah, to the law school, so Collin's law professor could swear him into the military. It was a very nice evening, followed by ice cream at The Creamery and my boy is now in the throes of trying to figure out base housing, military moving and uniforms.

I am proud of him and his choices, just as I am proud of all my kids. It's just that I will miss them...a lot, just like I miss all my kids and their kids.

All Good Things...

...eventually have to come to an end, and I had to head back home.

We had a few last cuddles and then I had to go to the airport.

As a kind of humerous aside, I rented a car when I went to Iowa, requesting a mid-size vehicle. I had to laugh when I walked out into the parking lot to my assigned car and found that in the -20 wind chill, I was driving a bright red Mustang convertible...with California plates. I ended up slipping and sliding a little and really missed my truck.

I made it to the airport and while I was sitting there, SD Boy texted me this photo:

with the caption, "He misses his grandma." Yeah, rip my heart out why don't you....

Stats

My DIL wanted to try a few pictures that might be used for baby announcements. We tried a couple of ideas we had seen on Pinterest.

We got everything set up.

And then grabbed the binky away.

And everything was going fine.

Until he realized it was gone.

We tried a different look.

And ended up with a similar result.

It's very hard work posing for pictures.

 

Ready for Your Close Up?

I moved furniture one day to take pictures of the baby in a little better light. Some were more successful than others, but these were pretty good.

Baby loves his hands.

Here you can see the jaundice he had. I love the baby fuzz they have on their faces and backs.

I messed with some Rad Lab overlays to try to tone down the yellows a little bit. Makes me miss him.