A Sweet Birthday Boy

One of Noah's little friends recently lost his mom due to a car accident. She lived for a little while in the hospital, but it was too late. I wasn't close with her, but she had came to Noah's birthday party in Feburary and I knew the little boy's grandmother from daycare. Regardless, no one should lose their mom at such a young age. It made Dusty and I so sad just thinking about something happening to us and the kids not having us in their lives. What's even sadder is what the little boy's grandma was going through. I wish I knew her better so I could tell her I'm sorry, but it just seems so awkward now. I just hope she knows that I feel for her.

On a happier note, the grandmother decided to have a birthday party for Noah's friend this past weekend and most of the kids from daycare were invited. It was a pool party and since Noah is such a good swimmer now with his puddle jumper, we decided to go.

Poot Poot was timid about getting in the water, but she got her toes wet at least.

Here's the silly birthday boy!!!

I was a little scared of Noah getting on the diving board and actually, the first time he did it, he wasn't listening to me and jumped anyway, but after I saw that he was going to be okay and hold his breath I let him do it some more. Wow, I can't believe Noah is jumping off a diving board!!! Craziness!

Dustin, Pootie, and I pretty much hung out and watched Noah. He had a lot of fun. Poot had fun pointing out all the other babies around and enjoyed the two little dogs that were out and about. :)

I love watching kids at parties. They always want to help the birthday boy or girl. Noah kept asking if it was his turn. How cute.

Elaine's going away party

It seems that here lately at work, we are losing quite a few nurses. One of our favorite traveler nurses, Elaine, overstayed her contract in order to help us out when we were short nurses. We really got to know her and we are going to miss her witty,wonderful personallity. In a way she kinda reminded me of my mom. So goodbye dear Elaine...I hope that you come back to us one day. :)

Here's a few pics that I made look special for Elaine when I finally send her the CD I promised her! :)

Funky Town

Dustin has taught Olivia a new song. She loves Funky Town. These kids are destined to be goofy when they grow up. :)

Yummy Beans

So, one night I made some beans for one of our potluck meals at work and snuck in some ground pork and didn't tell anyone cause I thought they'd be grossed out. As it turned out, everyone loved the beans and I've made this recipe tons of times before and it never tasted this good, so pork has to be the secret. Anyhow, I thought I'd put the recipe up so that I wouldn't forget it and be able to share it with others. Trust me, you'll love it and it's so simple. This would be a great crock pot recipe if you wanted to do dry beans instead of canned ones. :) Enjoy.

You will need:
2 cans Bush's pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 pkt ranch seasoning ( I buy it in bulk, so just measure accordingly....don't worry, if you add too much, it will only add to the flavor)
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 32 ounce low sodium chicken broth
2 cups seasoning blend (or 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion, bell pepper, and cellery)
1 lb ground pork
1/2 tsp Slap ya Mama seasoning (I really think this is one of the things that made the flavor so good too because a friend left it out and it didn't taste as good...I found mine at Super 1 Foods)
Salt/Pepper/Garlic Seasoning to taste

*see below for crock pot version

Begin by scrambling the ground pork and seasoning blend on hi heat. Cook until done. Drain if you want, but I like to keep my grease to add to the flavoring. Actually there wasn't that much grease believe it or not.  Add in the packet of Ranch once it's all cooked and stir. Lower your heat to medium.

The mixture will kinda get a thickness to it...thisis normal. (It's just the ranch thickening the juices up).

Add the rest of the ingredients to the pot and simmer on medium to low heat for 10-15 minutes.

Cook some corn muffins up and serve! The juice in this picture looks a little odd, but believe me, it's the most awesome juice ever.

*Crock Pot Version of Yummy Beans

For the crock pot version, I'd use 1 lb pinto beans and 1/2 pound kidney beans. Sort and clean the beans and throw in crock pot with the rest of the ingredients. I might add 2 cups of water or 2 cups chicken broth to compensate for the beans soaking up the juice. Cook on low for 6-8 hours until tender.

If you want to use can beans but put it all on the crock pot, cook on low for 4 hours.

Sibling Love

So getting a picture of these two both smiling at once is impossible. As you can see, if I could combine all these pictures, I might get one good picture. But, I love every one of these and had to share them. As you can see from my side pics, this is where I got them from. :)

A friend's baby gift

It's becoming a tradition to do a taggie blanket for my friends who are expecting a baby. This time tho, I added some big brother/sister shirts too. I hadn't done much applique, but I think it came out good. Olivia didn't want me to give up the blanket and I almost had to pry it out of her hands. Poor thing. I guess I'm going to have to make a big blankie for my little ones.

 

My's last supper

Tonight we had a semi wonderful evening among coworkers. We gathered together to say farewell to our friend My. She got another, more wonderful job opportunity and couldn't refuse the offer. We gathered together at Lago Del Pino. It was a wonderful spot on the lake, but awful service and not so great food. There was a good twenty five of us and not one of us would recommend the place to others except to say it had great ambiance.

Here's a pic of my good friend My (It's Swedish btw which I love!!!)

 

I will miss My greatly. The thing I will miss the most is her carefree attitude and free spirit. She had such a good outlook and rarely said anything that wasn't positive. She had such kindness and was a wonderful asset to our Labor and Delivery department. She was the sweetest and most kind person to me and I will miss that alot.

Nice lake...not so great service or food. :(