Christmas Eve

So glad to have my old blogger back.  In case you'd like to catch up what we were up to while I couldn't blog here go here.

Hubby's mom turned 80 this year and while in New Orleans we celebrated at a fancy restaurant on Christmas Eve..
Here, hubby and I are waiting to leave (walk) to the restaurant.

Ms. Hubby's Mom in her festive hat from my SIL.  Everyone had a great time and enjoyed the food (four course meal).  The pecan pie was really, really good. 

 

 MIL with our niece.

 All of us (excluding Jim).  The funny story...Nancy (SIL #1) wanted to get a photo all of us in front of this certain Christmas Tree.  It was a small walk from the restaurant to a hotel none of us were staying at.

None of the photos (from phones & point and shoots) turned out just right and Nancy wanted to get a photo of all of us in front of a Christmas tree the next night too.  It soon became the joke of the trip.

On our walk back to our hotel a great deal of fog came rolling in off of the Mississippi.  It was so thick you could see the moisture in the lights.  One of my favorite parts of the trip was the solo saxophonist playing O Holy Night under a light in the fog.  It was really moving and stood out above the other noises of the night.  I regret not stopping and video tapping him.

Jackson Square

 Jackson Square is in the French Quarter.  In the day there are artists, balloon artists, people dressed up in all sorts of costumes.  At night the palm readers, taro cards readers, etc. come out.

 This building is a Catholic church that still holds mass.

 Many horse drawn carriages line the outside of Jackson Square.  To the left of this photo would performances throughout the day, with theater style seating.  The smell of cigarettes, coffee and horses fill the area.  The sound of people, carriage drivers calling for riders, dance music, horses breathing, and various styles of music are heard here.

 (from internet) Here you can get an idea of how the artists set up along Jackson Square.

The French Quarter in gold/tan.  Our hotel was at the very bottom the the gold.  Most of everything you'd want to go to is in the gold box.

I've moved

Due to technical difficulties and I don't want to pay to keep my blog going, I have moved it to another server.
I am still working out the bugs and learning how it all works.  I don't like these kind of things.
I have been with Blogger for YEARS and feel so comfortable here.
Yet their latest changes have me baffled.

So, please come and visit me on my new blog.
http://pressed24petals.blog.com/

What's up with Blogspot?

Okay, since my last blog post something about Blogspot has changed. 
I can't even upload one photo without having to pay for an upgrade? 
And what is with the Picasa account...how do I access my supposed account?

Anyone else having this problem?

Halloweenish Catch Up

For those of you who may not know, we don't really do Halloween.
But here are some Halloween photos for you...

Son did this all on his own...pretty good.

The kids went to a late after Halloween Halloween Party.  I had fun with son's make-up.

The Morning After Confessions (not as juicy as it sounds)

(This is a pretty random post, and yet it is all related.)

Okay, well, two mornings after.
I have to confess that I went to bed a bit heavyhearted the night of the elections.
I got up the next morning and decided that Obama may be stealing getting more of our money but he isn't going to steal my joy!  I had a great time reading my bible and praying.
Then it was off for my pre-breakfast, pre-kids waking up, pre-...well you get the idea walk/jog.  It felt great.  I felt great all day.

Something happened that night when I went to bed, reading about how a woman with a learning disability changed her brain...good read.  Something got resparked (is that even a word?).  Don't know what clicked, but I got re-energized for homeschooling again.

I confess, I was feeling pretty burned out from teaching.  High school kicks my butt!  Most home schooled high schoolers can pretty  much school themselves at this point.  (How's that for fitting in as many "school" words in as possible?)  Well, not so in our house.  I was this close (can you see my fingers?) to sending him back to public school...this close.  He was not a happy camper.  Alas, I have come up with a new plan.  We are sticking with the current distance learning, and I am adding a heap of work onto his day and mine.  We have just begun this and I am already behind on my "chores".  Why oh why does this happen every time I regroup?

So, at the end of this journey, our homeschool journey, our journey with four more years with Obama, both of our kids will be graduated and able to vote.  Me, I may be starting all over with our "new" kids.  Anybody got an few extra brain cells I could have...maybe that's covered in Obamacare.

2012 Down Syndrome Buddy Walk

This past Sat. My mom, step-dad, hubby, son and I went to Las Cruces for the annual Buddy Walk.  I had missed last years and so wanted to go to this one.
We got side tracked with traffic and had to drive around in a few circles before we got parked.  We got there and signed up just in time. 

Little did we know we were in the parade!

It was slow moving so I had plenty of time to get a few photos in.

This is the best shot I could get of our son.

There were a lot of people, a lot of young kids with Down syndrome.  I was prepared to see cute kids, but I didn't expect to get teary-eyed watching them.  The day when we get our little one can't come soon enough.

My Everyday Smoothie

This is really for my mom, but you can enjoy too!
For a few months now I have been drinking this for lunch (sometimes dinner).
You have heard me talk about it a few times.
It is really a create your own smoothie kind of thing.
Which I love.
Here are the goodies I put into my shake.  (Sometimes the fruits vary.)

Here's the basic goodies for the smoothie-yogurt, milk, banana, kale (or spinach).

I don't measure, ever.

It will all blend better done in this order.  The fruit weighs down the kale.

I cut up my own papaya and any other fruit about to over ripen.  I LOVE blueberries on here too.

It usually makes more then this.  I usually completely top of the cup.

Some tips/notes:
Mangos make the smoothie thick.
Apples, grapes and skinned fruit don't get all of the way smooth.
You can add vanilla extract if you need to sweeten it up.  (I use unsweetened yogurt.)
Depending on the fruit you may need to add more milk.
Spinach blend smoother.
Kale tastes more "green".

Tim's Place

Last week hubby had to travel to Albuquerque for work.
I quickly reminded him about Tim's Place.  "You need to go.  Take the camera."  I quickly fired off.
He did go, but Tim wasn't there.  (insert a big AHHHH....MAN!)
Here are the shots he did get of the restaurant.  See the small red vehicle in the center-ish of the photo?  That's where Tim's Place is.)

Feeling Domestic

Yesterday I was feeling pretty domestic.

I made my own vegetable stock and pesto.  

Here they are, frozen.  Don't they look like jars of honey.

I use the fresh basil right outside our door.  This plant started as a seed.  I had originally planted it in the garden on the backyard.  It wasn't doing good, so I moved to it to the front and went wild.

The basil totally over shadows the lemon thyme.

Here's the Vegetable Stock Recipe:

(from fresh and fast vegan cook book)

2 Tbl olive oil

3 medium onions, roughly chopped

4 carrots,  roughly chopped

2 leeks,  roughly chopped

1 celery stick,  roughly chopped

1 small green lettuce

1/2 head of broccoli, cut into florets

1 bay leaf

4 black peppercorns

pinch of sea salt

handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped

12 cups (6 pints) water

*Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.  Add the onions, carrots, leeks, celery, lettuce, and broccoli, and sweat the vegies over low heat for 20 min.  Add the bay leaf, peppercorns, salt, parsley and water.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 1 1/4 hours over a very low heat-it is important that the liquid only just bubbles.  Every now and then you will need to skim the form from the top of the liquid with a large spoon.

*Strain the stock, making sure you don't push any of the vegies through the sieve.

*Let it cool, and refrigerate (or freeze) until needed.

Makes approx. 2 qts

prep time: 20 min.

cooking time: 1 1/4 hours