Trip to the Beach Part I

Ah, we are finally out of our semi-comas and moving back in to semi-normal! I am literally keeping a spreadsheet for medications as all four of us are on 5-6 meds each!

We had a little scare with Zoey which put us in the ER, when she spiked a 106 fever and started vomiting. But all was well once they got the fever finally come down after an hour or so. Thankfully, no more high fevers like that since then and both kids are getting some much needed rest and sleeping through the night.

So thank you for all the prayers and thoughts, we are moving toward health again...hopefully! But we still expect several more days till we're 'out in public' healthy!


So a few weeks ago, my parents and us went to Galveston beach to spend the weekend at a time share we own there. Yes, it was unusually cold for Texas and we thought we may not get much beach time, but we had so much fun and Braedan talks about it non-stop still!

We were determined to let them play in the sand come rain or shine, and at about 40 or so degrees and a wind chill, we bundled up, but had some fun! The cold didn't seem to bother them at all, they were way to preoccupied with the sand!














I would so love to live on the beach!! My husband is obsessed with the beach and water and the sand and everything that goes with it, so I would not have a hard time convincing him at all! And I must say, though the temps were cool, it was much, much enjoyable than the 100 degree weather you get on those beaches in the summer! That, and there are no crowds!

And stuck in this house with the flu all week, these pictures are looking so appealing today!

It just doesn't get much better than this...I can still hear the waves. :0)

Happy Valentines Day??????

Hmmm...happy wouldn't exactly be the word I used, but we'll go with that one for now!

Here's a how our day has gone so far...

After being in a semi-coma state all of Sunday, I awoke feeling slightly better, however both my kids were now sick. (and by better I mean my temp was no longer 104 and I could actually speak above a whisper without coughing till I puked.)

Yah.

Did I mention Daddy was just starting to feel a bit better after his bout with this yucky stuff last week?

Yah.

We got 9:15 appointments for kids, where Braedan tested positive for Influenza A and while Zoey tested negative, the dr just thinks it's just because we're a day early on her, and so, went ahead and prescribed Tamiflu for both. Did I mention this is why I love this doctor?!?!

So, after two hours at the ped's office, we make it to the pharmacy to fill prescriptions, where, yup, they only had enough to fill one of the prescriptions, and then I also loaded up on $50 worth of OTC meds to keep us all alive.

Yah.

So after 30+ minutes at that pharmacy, I come outside to a car that won't start. (Danny and the kids were waiting out there) We call a friend from work to come jump start it...didn't happen.

So after an hour plus in a parking lot with kids and fevers and no naps, Danny heads home with the friend from work to pick up our other car.

Oh, and did I mention all this time Zoey had a poopy diaper and we had no extra diapers?

Yah.

When I go to roll up the windows in the dead car, they won't roll up. That's how dead the battery is. Knowing we can't leave the car unattended with the windows down, I take the kids home for meds and a little break, while Danny waits for a tow truck.

Yah.

Danny and I have dr appointments about an hour later, so I am halfway there to pick him up, when he calls to say that the tow truck guy had better cables and the car started so pick him up at home. So we turned around and went to pick him up.

Yah.

Drove to the dr for he and I, where, let me tell you, we've been going there for years and love the dr, but the nurses leave something to be desired! I test positive for both flu and a secondary infection, but he also tells me Danny has had it too long for the Tamiflu to do anything (and his fever had been gone for days), so no reason to see him. In and out in 15 minutes, now that's a part of my day I could be thankful for with both sleeping kids in the car!

Head to the second pharmacy to now fill both mine and B's prescriptions, which happens to also be a grocery store. And it's Valentine's Day.

Yah.

Dropped of scrips and shopped for a few more 'my entire family has the flu' items, then stood in what I thought looked like the shortest line (there were no short lines) and got stuck behind the poor guy who gets charged for 10 red bell peppers instead of 1, so have to wait for a manager to override the void.

Yah.

Did I mention managers don't come nearly as quickly on holidays?

Yah.

So we finally made it home, where we can finally get the rest and much needed sleep we all need.

Danny has to run out for one last prescription pick up, but our goal is have the kids in bed by 7 and us at 8:30 at the latest.

Did I mention he didn't sleep one wink last night getting up 10+ times with our coughing feverish son whose mom was still in a coma?

Yah.


Oh, did I also mention that my entire family was in town this past weekend for my mom's 60th birthday, where they all got exposed and one of my niece's has already tested positive?

Yah. We are spreading the love. Literally.

So, friends, Happy Valentine's Day! Hope yours went a lot better than ours!

Now I'm off to make our special Valentine's menu of chicken noodle soup and Tamiflu.

Romantic, right?!?!?!

Yah. Not so much.

But on a positive note (one that did not end up with flu results!)I can share these adorable pictures my friend Nikki took from Moxie Photography of my most handsome boy!






Wondering where Zoey is?

Well that's a good question!

The day we took these, she was wearing the most adorable dress and looking mighty cute! But refused, I mean refused to even get near that chair to let Nikki snap some pics of her! And even after Nikki and I thought we had bribed her to take some shots with a donut, she proceeded to take the donut and throw it at the chair!

Yah.

So, that's why Valentine's Day pics 2011 will only be of Braedan. :0)

Please, oh please, let next year's Valentine's Day be better than this one!!

Snow Day!

I definitely did not think, even with these unusually cold temps in Texas, that we would actually have some snow stick to the ground!

So imagine my surprise when we woke up last Friday morning to actual snow on the ground!

School was of course cancelled, because we are just not equipped down here to handle that kind of weather!

You northerners may think this is lame, but we southerners were enjoying every second of it while it lasted! It did, afterall, melt by noon!














And now, we're ready for the cold to go away! We've had enough!

Lunar New Year Ddeokguk

The essential food for the lunar New Year is ddeokguk, a mild rice cake soup. Koreans think that eating ddeokguk on Seollal makes you a year older. Until you’ve dug into a steaming bowl of rice cake soup, you’re still the same age as the year before!

If all I have to do is eat a bowl of soup to become a year younger, then sign me up!

EDITED: So apparently I can't read!! Clearly the quote above states that until you eat a bowl of ddeokguk, you're the same age as the year before, but once you eat it, you're actually a year older! Yikes! Glad I only one bowl full. ;0)

Clearly, I need more sleep!

So here's the way I made it on Lunar New Year...

First, I took some sirloin steak and marinated it in a base similar to most bulgogi marinades...garlic, sugar, black pepper, soy sauce, a litte ginger if you have it, and some sesame oil. You can do all this to taste!

Then, I sliced and soaked fresh rice cake. And by "fresh", I mean not frozen. My local Korean market carrys it and it looks like this:

I found it impossible to cut with a knife, so I grabbed a pair of trusty 'ole kitchen sheers and snipped away into nice thin pieces! Soaked for about 30+ minutes. They are super sticky, but delicious!

Fry up the meat that has been marinating after cutting it into thin bite size pieces and set aside.

The recipe called for just plain old boiling water and dried anchovies for the soup base. I knew my family wouldn't love this idea, so I just decided to use beef broth. Toss in the soaked and rinsed rice cake slices, and then I also decided to add some chopped up bok choy for some greens. I let this return to a boil and cook till tender.

Then I whipped up two raw eggs in a cup, and slowly poured them into the soup pot in a thin stream and allowed the egg to cook for a few seconds before stirring. It made the eggs look more like egg drop soup, which is what you're going for! Stir too soon and you'll have a milky soup!

Then place the cooked sirloin into the bottom of the bowls.


Then ladle in the delicious guk!


You can top it with crumbled up toasted seaweed, and some sliced green onions.

I served mine alongside some cucumber and radish kimchi, yum!



I also made up mandu, which taught me some helpful lessons...never try to 'bake' eggroll mandu! I usually fry mine in oil, but tried to stick to something healthier by baking them and it was just a mess! But clearly not enough of a mess to keep Zoey from chowing down!

Braedan, however, had this response when I asked him if he wanted some!

I guess that's a no?!?!?!

All in all it was a delicious ddeokguk that we will have again next year! If I keep this up, I'll be in my twenties forever!

Here's to the Year of the Rabbit!

새해 복 많이 받으세요 Happy Lunar New Year!!

The year of the rabbit has commenced!

We celebrated with some traditional ddeokguk, paired with yakimandu and some radish and cucumber kimchi! Yummo!

I took lots of pictures since it was my first time making ddeokguk, which is rice cake soup, but I'll post all that tomorrow as I have about a million orders for my Etsy store to process before going out of town this weekend to, of all places in this weather, the beach!!

It's supposed to be nice and sunny, so I'm hoping to at least get some time with the kids playing in the sand!

In the meantime, read this great article about the Koreans and how they celebrate Lunar New Year!

새해 복 많이 받으세요 Happy Lunar New Year!!

Brrrr!!

I know no matter where you live across the US, you are cold!!!

But us hot blooded people down here in Texas do not do cold!

See that temperature?!?!? Too cold! (and yes, my car has 101K miles!)

You should not leave your dog bowls outside in weather like this...


and you should remember to turn of your sprinklers!

I wish I had a picture of the house I saw this morning with the grass, sidewalk, driveway and car, covered in ice and nothing else around it!! It was pretty funny!

We also don't own winter coats, because we just never use them.

So we just layer on our hooded sweatshirts for warmth!

Tights and Crocs work too!

Layers and color, layers and color! That's what it's all about!


This is about as winter-ed out as we get!

My favorite is the rolling black outs we've been having throughout the day to conserve energy from all the heaters running! Again, heaters aren't usually on here in Texas! I actually do remember before having kids, my husband and I didn't use the heater the entire winter!

And yes, I do still have a son, but he's always at school when I have my camera out!

He stayed warm too! With this weather expected, they did an extra receses at school on Monday since the rest of the week, they have to stay inside. Good thinking!

Everyone stay warm and safe!

Off to drink the rest of my cider!

A blogger funk.

Lately, I have felt like this blog needs a major overhaul!

Am I right?

Totally feeling like I'm in a blogger funk!

I used to have something to share or say every day, sometimes twice a day!

But not lately.

And I feel like I'm boring my 90 followers! (if you're still out there!)

Maybe our lives are just super boring right now!!

I must say there is a lot I wish I could share right this second, but I promise those things will get interesting!

I started this blog to catalog our adoption journey, my feelings on being an adult adoptee, and enjoying every day life with my family.

Have I accomplished that?!?!

So, I'll open it up to you...

what would you like to see on this blog?

More on our adoption journey and adoption in general?

More on my feelings about being an adult adoptee?

More pictures of my dogs?!?! (that's a joke.)

A Q&A?

More on parenting a crazy toddler?!?! (that's sort of a joke.)

More fun giveaways?

I am open to suggestions, any and all of them!

In the meantime, I am back to my crochet cave...

Two weeks ago I launched a brand new Etsy store, called Fresh Outta the Oven (or FOTO for short!) which features photography props for newborns!

I secretly wish I was a newborn photographer! I really think that is my dream job!

But since I'm not, I will live vicariously through the many, many fabulous photogs out there and help create those precious pictures!

It has been a lot of fun so far creating all these products and the store has been very busy since opening!

Click HERE to check it out!