My good friend over at www.sewmanybooks.blogspot.com is doing an awesome GIVEAWAY!! Get on over there to enter (CLICK HERE to go directly to the giveaway post) and tell her that Jamie sent you! Don't forget to reference my name people!!
Aspen got her braces on today! I think she was a little excited, but didn't want to show it too much. After she came home, she didn't hurt hardly at all. I kept asking her because I KNEW it was gonna hurt. Sure enough, about 5 hours later it hit her like a brick wall and she was in tears! Poor thing! She looks great with them on and I'll be glad to have ONE kid in braces done with and FOUR more to go. I was told awhile ago by our dentist in Vegas to start saving because ALL 5 kids were gonna need them. Boy, was she right! We definitely got the bad teeth genes in this family, for sure!
On Valentine's Day, I decided to start a NEW tradition! We had FUNdue for dinner. We kept it a secret from the kids, and then when we told them what it was and gave them directions on how to eat it, they had a BLAST! They just couldn't get over the fact that we were gonna let them dip their dinner all night. I had a lot of fun putting it together and am so glad that the kids enjoyed it.
First, we had a Cheese FUNdue! We dipped cut up french bread and cut up ham into it. Here's the recipe for the cheese. It was super yummy! I doubled this, but I really shouldn't have. It made a LOT! I got the recipe from HERE, but changed the cheese. I used half Swiss and half Cheddar.
Non-Alcoholic Cheese Fondue
1/2 lb. Swiss Cheese 1/2 lb Cheddar 2 Cloves Garlic 3T Flour 2T Butter 1 1/2 cups Milk 1/2T Lemon Juice 1/8 tsp Nutmeg Salt & Pepper to taste
Peel garlic and slice the cloves in half the long way so the most inner surface is showing. Rub a heavy saucepan with two halves of the garlic for flavoring. Rub the fondue pot with the other two garlic halves.
Grate the cheese and mix with 1 T. of the flour.
Melt the butter in saucepan over medium-low heat. Add rest of flour. Stir well till smooth. Add about ½ cup of milk and stir till smooth. Slowly add the rest of the milk, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens to about the consistency of light cream. Add a handful of cheese and keep stirring. Let the cheese melt and then add another handful and stir until it melts. Repeat the process until all the cheese is melted.
Once all the cheese has been added and the mixture is smooth, you can stir in the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Finally, add the lemon juice. Stir well till the mixture is smooth once again.
Then I added the cheese from the stove to a crock pot. It worked out really nice!
Eat Immediately!!
Then we moved onto the Meat FUNdue. We started off putting chicken broth into a Frydaddy. The chicken we cooked in there tasted GREAT, but the broth kept trying to boil over. So, we emptied out the broth and put in some oil. It worked great, but didn't taste as good as the broth, but it was still YUMMY! The kids got a little bored waiting for their meat to cook, so this wasn't their favorite course.
After the chicken, we had DESSERT! It was so good, and definitely the kids' favorite course! I used white chocolate because some in my house aren't big on the regular chocolate. (That would be ME & Aspen!) The white chocolate was HEAVENLY! Seriously...the kids were in heaven! We dipped strawberries, marshmellows, pound cake, pretzels, and bananas. I got the recipe HERE, and we followed it exactly!!
Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 (12-ounce) packages premier white morsels
In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine cream and butter. Bring mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly. Remove pan from heat. Add white morsels. Stir until melted and smooth. Cool slightly. Transfer to a fondue pot, chafing dish, or ceramic bowl. Serve immediately with sliced apples, sliced bananas, strawberries, cookies, pretzels, and pound cake.
We have been so focused on Thomas' school, my school and the kids' school that not a whole lot else has been going on. There is pretty much NOTHING new and exciting going on in the Garyson home! It's been challenging, to say the least, the last few months. I go back and forth at least 5 times a day on whether I should just send the kids back to a regular public school or just tough it out and keep them in their charter school.
Aspen would really like to get back into sports and friends. She has also told us how she likes her teachers teaching her and not us. Sierra is completely opposite! She would rather be completely at home and not have to go into school at all. That worries me a little as I don't want her to become a hermit! Ryker and Harley get tired of having MOM tell them what to do and what not to do, but for the most part they are doing quite well. I've started giving them checklists of all the school work needed to get done in the morning, and they love doing it "on their own" and checking it off as they go. Marina, well, she is tired of having everyone home, and NOT having everyone's attention at all times. I mean, if they're home, they should be paying attention to her, right??
Thomas is plugging away at his Calculus, Chemistry and CAD classes. It's starting to get SUPER tough, but he is doing a great job staying focused on the future and working really hard to understand all of it. He has a tutors for calculus and chemistry, but I'm not sure if they are really helping. He NEEDS a great tutor! Hmmm...where to find one, though....
I am taking 3 online classes, and a chemistry class on campus. PLUS, I just got into a class at the hospital here to become a Unit Secretary! I am SUPER DUPER excited and the first class was really fun. I can't wait to finish and be able to get a job in a hospital nursing unit and get some experience with nurses. OH, well, that's new....I hated all of my business classes, so I decided to try nursing! It's quite a big step for me, as I NEVER thought I would EVER want to be a nurse. (I'm not too keen on needles.) But, I've talked with several nurses and it just feels right. For some reason, I just keep coming back to it! So, I thought, let's give it a try! I am also still babysitting, so I keep busy with my school, the kids' schooling, babysitting and helping to run the Primary in our ward!
So, now you know why I don't update as much as I'd LOVE to. Hopefully, soon, this will all be worth it! There is a faint light starting to show......
Thanksgiving morning after my parents headed out to Jerusalem, we packed up and headed out to DC. I love that we live here in Indy and can drive there. There is absolutely no way we all could have gone to visit my brother if we didn't live so close. And by so close, I mean about a 10 hour drive away. Which is still fairly close.
Before we could even leave, we had to break into our house! Yup, you heard right. We locked up ALL of the doors, and since we had rented a van, we left all of the keys to the cars hidden in the house. Well, the keys to the house are also on those key rings. We realized it too late, and had to figure out how we should go about getting in. Thomas ended up having to go up in the attic in the garage, walk across the rafters to the back of the house and bust down the drywall sealing up the attic access in our room. Definitely NOT as easy as that sounds!!
So, after all that hullabaloo, we were on our way. The trip wasn't bad at all, and the kids did great! As lond as we had movies, they were GOOD! We got there that night, and just relaxed and played with cousins for the night.
The next day, we decided to go to Mt. Vernon, which is George Washington's home. I am so glad we went! I love going places where my kids will enjoy themselves, but also learn a TON while they are there. If you're ever in DC, go to Mt. Vernon. I think you should go, at least, once.
The next day, we headed out to the National Mall. We did the Museum of Natural History first, and then we walked around the Mall to the Air and Space Museum. My kids LOVE the movie Night at the Museum, so they really enjoyed finding all of the stuff that was in the movie. Then we walked back around to our cars, and headed to the Lincoln Memorial where a few of us jumped out and went up and took pictures.
Sunday, we woke up, got packed and headed home. It took us about 2 hours longer than going because of an accident, but it was so worth it to go! We loved spending some one on one time with my brother and his family, and hope to get together with them once more time before they head out for Cairo Egypt for a few years. We will definitely miss them!
We had a wonderful day for Harley's Baptism. It was so nice to have some family come. We are so proud of Harley and are just loving being her parents. She got her new set of scriptures the night of her Baptism and started reading them. She didn't put them at all that night. It was so sweet! We definitely missed those who couldn't come, but we're so thankful you could all be there in spirit. Enjoy the slide show!
Wow! I can't believe the day is almost here. Harley is 8 now, and will be baptized this Saturday. My 2nd to youngest child will be baptized! How is it possible that my kids keep getting older, and yet, I stay so young?!? Ha ha! We're so excited to see her take this big step in her life and couldn't be prouder of the young woman she is becoming. We will miss those of you who can't make it, but I know that your hearts will be with us on Saturday. I will try to remember to post pictures soon after.
