So. Our family has been sick for a long, long time.

I believe that the throwing up started Christmas Eve and we haven't had a fully healthy family since then. It is almost comical. Everyone will seem on the upswing and three seconds later someone has a river of green coming out their nose. We actually all made it to church one week and it was announced as the "happy minute moment". I am not embellishing at all when I say that about 20 minutes after I got home from church I had a sore throat and was so sick I couldn't get out of bed for several days. Who ever gets that sick anymore? We even got Maria sick. I think it might have been strep, but I didn't get myself to the doctor to see. In about 10 days I could swallow again and found myself 10 pounds lighter for my troubles. We just finished a round of coughs and colds and the little girls have not been in therapy for two weeks (we went back today, but big sister has a 104 fever and is bed bound with the flu. I sure hope she shares it with ALL the kids..).

The point of all this is not to whine about how we have been so sick. It has actually provided a refreshing change of pace for us. It has been like a vacation-with snot. I was laughing with a friend about how the kids must be spreading each others germs. We wondered if they were licking each others noses in the middle of the night or spitting in the bottles. Then today I randomly walked into the bathroom today and found Jacob. With his head in the toilet. With his head in the toilet as if he was bobbing for apples. Luckily it wasn't apples he had in there, just the hair brushes, the lotion bottle and everything else you put your hands on in the bathroom.

So, while I joked about the funny ways my kids could be infecting each other, never in my wildest dreams did I think that my germophobe son (heaven forbid there be a hair in the bathtub or that he get his hands STICKY) was marinating the downstairs bathroom in bog water. I can't even think about it. I am trying to find the humor in this, but right now I am too busy cloroxing every hard surface in the house.

I am beyond asking the question "why" (and just in case you are curious, the answer I got was "I don't know") I just want to know what kind of thoughts lead up to the point where the end result is to dunk your head in the toilet. We may never know.

I can't decide to call this a good day or a bad day. Good days generally aren't applicable if anything unusual with a toilet has been involved.

I think I will sleep on it.

*Update. After a reasonable night's rest and an episode of "The Bachelor--The Women Tell All". I have concluded that it was a GOOD day. If you are familiar with my wild man Cubby, you know that this is nothing. It didn't involve poison, sharpies, stitches or police..... What a GOOD day!!!

** Update/Update. I just remembered that a few days ago while we were visiting my in-laws for dinner, Cubby bounded into the dining room with a bunch of rat traps in his arms. The old fashioned kind that spring shut (like in the cartoons). I have no idea how he didn't hurt himself (and also, ewwww). That would have involved poison, stitches, broken bones AND the police (after we go three or four times in a year we have to meet with the hospital social worker--because, honestly, who has to go the ER as much as we do?).

**Update/Update/Update. I have had a few query's about the silhouettes. I did them in about 4 seconds in Photoshop. It is super easy. Want one? Check back in a few days. I'll post a tutorial for those who have Photoshop and how to get one from me for those that don't. It will involve a small charitable contribution of your choosing.

Just don't rock the boat....

I have had several inquiries recently asking how I am doing. My lack of blogging has annoyed some people (sorry mom) and worried others. Since the last time I took a big, unannounced blogging break was during the DARK TIME it is a fair concern.

Actually, things are fine. Better than fine, they are awesome. They are doing so well that I have to pinch myself to believe it. In fact, I think that was half the problem. I have been on such an even keel I don't want to do ANYTHING to mess that up. It is like my life is a ship that is packed to the absolute top and we are cruising along at top speed. Everything is fine unless someone upsets the balance. Is that to vague of an analogy? I guess what I am trying to say was that trying to do extra things like blogging, reading or taking a shower (kidding, kind of) puts me off my game.

But, since my baby is almost one (next month, don't remind me..I can't stand it) it is time to re shift the boat. Derek even bought me a laptop so I could update this site regularly while I am in my car or waiting at doctor appointments. I will put up a bunch of pictures to show the relatives that my children are not just alive, but growing and thriving and hope that will buy me some mercy.

I am back.

This girl is HEAVEN. I absolutely cannot get enough of her. There will be lots of Gracie posts soon. Recently what I can't get over is how much like Lulu she is, except the whole "scratching her head with her own foot" thing. She continues to delight the children with her party tricks.


Miss N is a little girl now, there is no toddler left. She is walking, running and talking (heaven help us can she talk). When I see this picture I am struck by how beautiful she is (and how awesome my braids were....). Nosi is still globally delayed, but spends most of her time acting like a 2 1/2 year old. We are also seeing more and more of ...

... this face. Good times ahead.


This guy? Not much has changed. He continues to be charming and funny and is getting less destructive by the day. We are not sending him to Kindergarten this year (he is right on the cusp) so he has another year in preschool to refine his stand up act and practice all the funny faces to make his teacher crazy. Lucky her!

Lauren is too grown up for me. She chooses her own clothes, has opinions about her hair and is generally a great helper and sister. I was looking at pictures of her the other day and realized that my tiny girl is gone. I didn't even notice that the new big girl Lulu had replaced her. Gulp.

There is a tidbit. I am working on some more posts. I am also going to start posting about the progress of Miss Gracie. I have talked to some parents who also have children with Down Syndrome and we were saying how there are only a few blogs that really give people some concrete insight into what it is like to raise our kids. We need these kinds of blogs, not for everyone, but for every family that finds out prenatally that their child has Down Syndrome and is trying to figure out what to do. Or, for the family that finds out at birth and feels overwhelmed with understanding just how exactly their lives are going to change. There needs to be more places where they can see what the developmental delays entail, how the therapies work in the context of family life. Mostly I just hope to show any one who reads here that having a child with Down Syndrome is both the biggest deal in the world and no big deal all at the same time. So many of these pregnancies are terminated and I just think that if people KNEW how easy it is to parent and love these kids, they would have just that much more information to add to their decision basis.

We are off to do something fun this weekend. What are your plans?

Mom, I need to be a rockstar....

Those were his exact words to me. In fact, they have been his words for the last six months. This boy has been BEGGING for a guitar for his birthday ("a REAL one mom..."). I won this guitar in the Nie Nie Day auction (thanks Oh Judy and the guys at Maroon 5!!!). No, I am not letting him carry this one around the house (for that, he gets the 30$ Target guitar, which is a good thing since I saw him hitting baseballs with it today....). But, I DID give him this one. He is obsessed with it and always asks me to hold it. He even knows how to shake his money maker while holding it. First things first.

After he opened it, he told me that he needs to find some other "big boys" and get on a stage and "sing like Rock Stars......" and then he proceeded to sing "Slow Ride" by Foghorn. You know, the one from Guitar Hero. Granted, his whole guitar exposure is from Guitar Hero (this is also where his exposure to swear words is from, ahem.....).

I think we might have a rock star on our hands.....

This one is for you, Pippin...

It seems like every day I think of something to write about. I have these great posts written in my head and then by the time I actually get in front of a computer, poof, they are gone. Then I give up and go to bed. Makes for a great blog. I am DETERMINED to blog more. I miss it. I need it.

I promised the Baked Potato Soup recipe and Pippin reminded me of that...so here you go. I am also getting some Design Mom traffic (Hi Design Mom readers!!!) because she linked me and I want them to have something interesting to read.. One thing you should know about me is that I don't measure things very precisely. That is why I stink at baking. I also tend to talk out recipes instead of just listing them. So, hang in there with the explanation, the end result is worth it.

Baked Potato Soup

I got this recipe from one of my favorite people, Miss Suzi J,who refuses to have a blog or comment on one. That is probably a good thing because she is really talented and would kick all our blogging behinds....

This soup is a basic roux with lots of good things added in. Add what you want, in the amount you want. The only thing that is really fixed is the roux. So here is the basic ratio. This can be a base for ANY cream soup. I usually plan on one cup of soup per person, so if you want to feed 8, use 8 cups of milk, 8 T Butter and 8 T flour, etc....

ROUX:

1 T Flour

1 T Butter

1 cup liquid (usually milk, or half milk and half stock. Or use all cream....just don't use all stock or non fat milk. There needs to be some fat in it to make it creamy).

Melt the butter in a large stock pot. Add flour and stir for about 2 minutes. This will cook the flour slightly and take away the raw taste. Add the liquid one cup at a time and whisk until smooth. That is it. This will thicken after simmering for about 15 minutes.

The thing that makes this taste like a baked potato is that there are, wait for it, baked potatoes in it. If you do this step ahead of time, this is a very fast meal to throw together.

6-10 med to large baking potatoes

Bake the potatoes in the microwave or oven. When they are fully cooked and cooled enough to handle, scoop out the insides. Mash or mix up so that most of it is in bite sized pieces (but not too small, it will break down a bit). I will bake a whole bag and then scoop them and freeze them. They freeze really well. One or two bags gets us through the whole season...

Add the potatoes to the roux. If you let this simmer a long time, the starch in the potatoes will continue to thicken the soup. This is fine. You can adjust by adding more liquid later. You can control the consistency.

Bacon

Onion

Garlic

Shredded Cheese

8 oz Sour Cream

At this point I also add bacon or ham. If you use ham, be aware that it will be quite salty and you will not need to salt this soup. I usually buy bags of already cooked and crumbled bacon at Costco and add a bunch. I also will cook up some onions and garlic in another pan (or if you are really lazy, do it in the 'melt the butter" phase of the roux) and add that too. You can even add carrots, corn, etc, etc. The sky (and the adventurousness of you kids) is the limit.

Right before you are ready to serve the soup, add a handful of shredded cheese (I use white cheddar b/c I like the soup to stay white and not get yellow-ish, but I am crazy like that). Any hard cheese will work; cheddar, mozzarella, jack, Gouda, etc, etc. Add the sour cream at this point too. Give it a stir and you are ready to go!

I serve this with bows of bacon, sour cream and cheese on the side so you can top it any way you want. This soup gets lots of compliments. People ask for the recipe and then have a heart attack when they see it has about a half a pound each of sour cream, butter and cheese in it!! For our family of six, I usually do 8 T of butter, 8 T of flour and 8 cups of liquid w/ about 2 cups of cheese and 2 cups of crumbled bacon. I like my soup thick w/ big chunks of potato in it. This is enough too feed us and give us several lunches worth of left overs.

Enjoy!

Guest posting today....

Come check out my post at Light Refreshments Served today ( http://lightrefreshmentsserved.com/) . They asked me to write about my experience with the Deaf culture. Long before I was the lady who knew all about adoption, trans-racial families and Down Syndrome, I was the lady that knew sign language. Not just any signed language, I knew BRITISH Sign Language. A language that is TOTALLY different than American Sign Language and is pretty much useless if you don't live in the UK. I served a mission for my church in the UK learning and using British Sign Language. In our church you don't choose where you go, you just sign up (missions are optional; girls go when they are 21 and boys fo when they are 19). You often don't know much about where you are going beyond the fact that it will be an adventure and you are willing to do your best. For more information about what missions are, you can go to http://www.mormon.org/.

I shared a few mission experiences, but there were MANY more that I couldn't share in the short amount of space that I had over there. Here are some more things that I DIDN'T share:

--how the sign for "very" is quite similar to the sign equivalent of the "F" word. More than one missionary thought they were saying that they were "very, very" something or another and really were saying that they were "f*@&ing f*@*#ing" something. Poor missionaries, but unintentional swearing is almost ALWAYS funny.

--one time we thought that we had a really solid baptism. We had taught the lessons to a deaf gentleman (and it had taken him over a year to decide to get baptised). He was so happy on his baptism day, he bought us a statue of the Virgin Mary (not something that we worship in our dogma) and told us how happy he was to be a "Catholic Mormon". Something clearly hadn't quite sunk in somewhere along the way.

--the sign for "baptised" looks very similar to the sign for "bury". We usually got a quick "NO" when we asked people if they wanted to be baptised. They thought we were asking if they wanted to be buried on a certain date. Frankly, I would say no to that too. People must have thought we were c-r-a-z-y.

--On the same vein, when I lived in East London, we would knock doors and ask people if they knew anyone who was Deaf. More than once we were sent to a house where someone had recently died (and once during the actual wake!!!). Then we realized that the East London accent has folks usually drooping the "th" sound for an "f" or 'v" sound. So, they thought were asking for someone who was DEATH. Apparently in East London they don't bother much with grammar either (because that clearly makes no sense either). I am surprised we didn't get more than strange looks.

--I met my husband while we were both missionaries. We didn't date each other out there (missionaries don't date while serving..well, they aren't SUPPOSED to....). We got reacquainted when we got home, but now I have to forever tell people that is how we met and then explain that missionaries really don't date, but that we met later, etc, etc, etc.

--I still use BSL to this day (that us why at the beginning of this post I said it is ALMOST useless if you don't live in the UK). There is a family in Palo Alto that moved to the US from England and they are deaf. When I see them in Walmart (always in Walmart) they sign with me in BSL. I am getting rustier and rustier as time goes by, but if I want to brush up, I can just head for Walmart and at some point I will see them. Weird, but true.

--I never taught my kids sign. Even with all the baby sign craze ("It's Signing Time with Alex and Leah" anyone? anyone?), I just didn't do it. I guess I was too lazy. The irony? The whole family needs to learn sign now b/c we will use it with Gracie. Kids with Down Syndrome have a harder time learning to talk and often ASL is a good bridge for them. So it is a matter of getting the big kids (and husband) up to speed so we can talk with her as she learns to talk.

Writing that post got me thinking about mission stories. I have a few more I can pull out of my hat, but I am going to go clean out Lauren's room. It is time for the Last Resort again in our house...... dum, dum, dum.......