Emily may give me white hair....hehehe

  Emily Dawn had her surgery about 2 to 3 weeks ago. When she had her braces put on they noticed her teeth didn't pull into place exactly right and that her sinus/ear/pallet of her mouth was aching and hurting. After some review they found her jaw was way out of alignment and causing the problem.
  A trip to Indy for an 8 hour surgery...they broke her top jaw, bottom jaw and set them back into place. Then they broke and moved the bone going to her chin and put her chin in the right location. Less than 3 days later she was home and on her liquid diet.
  Fast forward to today and they removed her splint in her mouth and one set of screws. She's doing awesome!! She only missed four days of school and has been slatted to return to work this week. She's one tough cookie!!
  She really liked her cards and her care package full of Diva Needed Supplies...colorful straws, tiny spoons, pudding, jello, water flavoring you name it ;)
  We sure do love the girl and are so very happy she's progressing so well. She's had her moments of frustration...you can't really understand her when she talks, embarrassment over trying to eat in public and such...but she's keeping her chin up and knows that soon she'll be all done with it :) 

New recipe tried

Picadillo Cubano (Cuban Ground Beef Dish)

Ingredients

(About 4-6 servings)

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 pound ground beef
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• Salt and pepper, to your taste
• 1 cup of tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1/2 cup of stuffed Spanish olives, cut in half
• 1/3 cup of raisins

• Directions

  1. Place a sauce pan on medium-high heat and add the olive oil.
  2. Add the beef and brown, stirring occasionally, then add the cumin, oregano, bay leaf, onion, bell pepper, garlic and season with salt and pepper.Cook for about 10 minutes more.
  3. Add the tomato sauce, olives and raisins. Reduce the heat to low, cover and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring often.
  4. Remove the bay leaf and serve over plain white rice.
     I'd love to say this was a super hit lmbo but it got mild reviews. I liked it but not something I would want every day...Steve barely ate any of it lol But I have been keeping up my deal of one new recipe every week or so. Thankfully I love to cook, love new ideas and I'm not too afraid to try things :) 

A sweet lunch date :)

  When I work 7 days straight I get Monday and Tuesday off. Kaya HATES when I do a 7 day stretch but she sure does love it when I have two days off during the week ;) She gets to be a car rider in the morning and night...which eliminates a VERY long bus ride and sometimes we surprise her by either swinging by Magic Morning or.......today we came to school for lunch. We had a blast. Steve and I sat with her and at the adjoining table was three of her buddies. Listening to all that chatter cracked us up. Then we walked her back to class and got asked if we'd like to help with recess duty since it was an indoor day due to the rain. Of course we volunteered ;) and had a blast. It's a bit hectic ...they set up stations around the gym room with dolls, school stuff, cars you name it or the kids can just play in the middle of the gym room. Time out is done on the bleachers and I have to admit the sweet little guy that was right under my elbow the whole time....yes I could have taken him home with us LOL
  Kaya was very happy to have the extra time with us and to have us there. One of her school buddies had told her "Kaya, don't get upset and cry if your parents don't come. Sometimes parents don't come when they say they will"...he was trying to protect Kaya's feelings. Of course our girl told him "When my parents make a promise they keep it. They'll be here". And we of course was.
  We had to play with her buddies too (Kaya sometimes is a bit shy about sharing "HER " parents lol but after a bit she's fine )
  All around nice day. Very thankful for every moment we have with this wonky wild child :) :) 

Easter!

 One long week (on a 7 day stretch!!) and it finally wrapped up today. Very thankful that Steve did the turkey breast and Kaya helped make the green bean casserole ;) We had my Mom and my mother in law in for supper and it was delicious. Along with with Steve and Kaya made I added mash potatoes and gravy, potato salad, mac n cheese, pasta salad, rolls, southern fried corn, Amish butter noodles, and deviled eggs. My Mamma made bake beans (she makes the best!!) and my mother in law pitched in two desserts and pop. It all came together nicely. I was raised to do dishes as you cooked so once everything was in the oven and going etc I had no dishes ;) to do lol We did one dozen dyed eggs and a dozen plastic eggs stuffed with candy and one with a quarter in it. Kaya loved her basket of goodies and her note from the Easter Bunny answering her questions LOL
  Very nice day weather wise, food wise and family wise :) 

Report card day!

Gotta brag on our girl. Report card day. 95% in Reading, 94% in Math. We started bragging on her and told her "You did great, you got A's!!", she drops her head and says "B means Better. I need to get B's!!" Finally got her to understand that an A is the highest you can get and means she's doing great!! lol She mastered all her skills for this term, scored 97% on sentences, sentence structures and mastered all the basics. Her only room for improvement was "follow directions and do work neatly"...(never saw that one coming LMBO). She is doing better on that so we give her points for trying to improve and take her time. She missed writing the letter Z because she did it backwards and the number 14 because she wrote it as 40...otherwise no missing of any!! smile emoticon 100% on her reading comprehension for Little Engine that Could. Very proud of the little miss. I hate how hard she is on herself ("I did horrible. I missed like 4 things out of the 15 page test!!") but very proud of her and glad she is doing so well smile emoticon

Ok...where did February go??

    Life sure never stands still that is one thing for certain. Every few days I fully intended to get on here and do an update...now Feb is gone and March is ...literally marching out the door too lol
  Feb was full of fun and love of course. We got to help out at the Valentines Day party and it was simply just a great time! Kids, desserts, drinks, valentines cards and lots of excitement lol The teacher did an excellent job on crafts and it was the same parent crew as usual. The kids had a ball and I love Kaya's face when she sees us come in the room. Wouldn't trade those moment for anything!!
   We broke Kosher this year lol and had a Valentines date just me and Steve. Kaya was a bit unhappy at first but then after playtime with Mammaw she was ok ;) It was nice to eat at our favorite place, talk and laugh. We've come to learn with a busy life, MS, a wild 6 yr old and work...whether it's a nice meal out or just five minutes over the kitchen sink...just talking and being together is nice. Life really is about the small things :)
  Feb was cold, snowy and..cold. Did I mention cold? I battled one snow storm after another it seems this month. When a barely 15 min drive to work turned into almost 40 minutes..that is insane! Road crews have done excellent...just a crazy winter.

New Years Day :)

   Kaya made it to 11 o'clock last night and then was out like a lightbulb. Steve tried to wake her to do her noise maker but she was out. She loved the little plastic wine glasses with sparkling grape juice. Steve and I did our traditional midnight toast and kiss. We've always said that it might not bring luck but who turns down a kiss from someone you really love?
   We've started a tradition of doing steaks on New Years Day. We are all steak eaters. Kaya and I usually split a steak..this year we are having Tbone. Steve has his own steak....porterhouse lol Steve makes his own rub and preps the steaks in the morning then grills them for a late lunch. Oh my! He does an excellent job! We all eat ours on the med rare side. We added in baked potato (for him and Kaya) and a baked sweet potato for me. I did a pan of rolls that came out wonderfully and used a good recipe for homemade cinnamon butter (butter, powder sugar, honey and cinnamon) for my potato and the rolls. Add in you HAVE to have cabbage in some form for the New Year so we had homemade coleslaw. Steve refuses cabbage period sooo just us girls had it lol
  Here's to hoping everyone's New Year is awesome and fun. Full of health, love, family and prosperity!