kids

I decided to make up for lost time and post more pictures of the kids taken this fall--all in October, I believe. I'll hopefully be better about this!! The first few are the kids with their pumpkins they carved--each suits their individual personalities,( don't be scared of Sage's makeup--she was an '80s girl). Then of course I had to add Sage with her kitty Roger, and the three kids at home (taken before my 20 year high school reunion to show old friends-yikes! I had the oldest kids), and then Maile before the Homecoming dance. Enjoy!

Snowstorm

I was reading my brother's blog this morning, and I might add, he hasn't posted anything for a LONG time, but then I surfed around to other people's blogs and just really enjoyed reading some of them so much--I felt moved to post today. And surprise surprise--after about 6 times of trying, I remembered my password.
So much has happened since my last post: our oldest left for college. What a bittersweet time of life for us, him. Of course he is just having a wonderful time and we are so happy that he is happy...but we miss him. It didn't hit us the first weekend we took him up to move in, it hit us after he came home to visit the first time and we realized, "he is just visiting". I'll be honest, I cried off and on all day the Sunday he left to go back.
Maile is on the verge of getting her driver's license if we can ever get an appointment schedulled, that is. She is growing up and changing, had a heartbreak this past week with a boy and I think it was just as hard on me in some ways!!!! And of course Sagey and Cai are growing and changing too and it is so busy and chaotic and wonderful at the same time.
But back to the snowstorm we are supposed to get today--I'm making beef stew and Todd requested some homemade bread so that's what he's getting. We hit the grocery store last night to get some essentials and we inched along the aisles with half the population of town it seems like. I'm looking forward to a "house" day--where we get some stuff done that we need to do and then later play a game or snuggle under a blanket to watch a movie (or as Joel likes to tease me about our family- "tv and treats") Plenty of that to be sure!!!

Yep, They're Mine

My daughter Maile, pictured here with Cai, got a camera for Christmas and has taken probably a thousand pictures by now (mostly of herself in various poses), but I FINALLY figured out how to get the pictures added to my blog--not rocket science, but a biggie for me.
We're having company for dinner tonight--Mailes' friend Caitlin, who is coming over after school to make fresh salsa for food day in Spanish class. I think we're having chicken breasts simmered in italian tomato sauce with angel hair pasta, but we'll probably eat A LOT of chips and salsa, just to make sure it tastes good. Hopefully I can get some other pics posted soon.

I'm back

I finally remembered my password, so I'm back to blogging world! I'm still trying to figure out how to post pictures on my blog, because I want my family that's spread out around the world to see the kids. It's nine o'clock here on a Saturday morning and I haven't got a clue yet what's cooking for dinner at the Mountjoy house, but when I do, I'll let you know. It WILL be fabulous!

Beef Stew and Yeast Rolls

Wow, it's been almost a month since my last post--but this is a very busy time of year. I can say with Christmas a week away, that I am almost ready! Just a few stocking stuffers and I should be good to go. Everyone here has been sick at some point with the exception of me. I'm thinking that I'm exposed to so much garbage at the clinic that I'm building up those beautiful immunities God gave us. Anyway, my point in saying that was that my kids and my husband are starting to feel run down, and we are looking so forward to this break together, a time to do some fun things together and a time to just relax.
Tonight's dinner is already cooking in the crockpot and it's six in the morning, but we have a busy night of dance team practice for Maile and Sage's final POMS team performance is tonight, so of course we have to go there. I'm ready to be done with that.

Not Sure

I don't know what to cook tonight. Last night we had a breakfast supper of scrambled eggs, bacon, grits with gravy and fruit, and it was delicious. But tonight I have to run to Sage's POMS thing at half time, and right after that, Maile gets done with her dance team practice. So no time to spend in the kitchen cooking.
And maybe I should re-think that whole cooking in the kitchen---I stabbed myself last night with a paring knife! It wasn't intentional. I was scraping out the toffee from a pan and wasn't having much luck with my little spatula, so I switched to a knife. Apparently the pan was greasy from the butter, and the knife slid right out of the pan and into the palm of my hand! I hopped around for a few minutes and everyone panicked, Todd get the car ready and Daleth tied my shoes, but by the time we got to the ER, I changed my mind about getting stitches. Sure, I could see the fat poking out of the wound, but it had stopped bleeding and I didn't want to sit around for 2-3 hours waiting. So I waited until today and had someone fix me up at work--there are benefits to working at a clinic.
Stabbing yourself is pretty traumatic. I can't imagine what it's like for people stabbed multiple times with LONG, sharp knives. I'll admit I felt a little dizzy for a few minutes, but got it together pretty quickly. And ordinarily blood and stuff doesn't bother me at all, but I guess it's different when it's yourself.
Well anyway, I left that plate full of toffee crackers on the counter and no one ate them--I guess they lost their appetites.

Leftovers

Hurray! Everyone rejoice with me--my dining room floor is now finished, we put the last coat of polyurethane on and put all the furniture in this evening--a little prematurely on the furniture, but Todd didn't want to wait any longer for things to get back to normal. It just looks so nice, I'm wondering why we waited so long and now I'm excited to get to my living room. But that's another entry....
So dinner tonight was leftovers because I was busy with home improvement and didn't have time to cook anything. Although I have to say I'm just about turkeyed out, and I still have alot of meat left. I think it's getting put in the freezer and will make another appearance as soup or an amazing casserole--I'll keep you updated.

TURKEY!!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I began an entry last night talking about our delicious dinner of leftover jambalaya , but got sidetracked by my husband announcing his decision to go to Barnes and Noble to "look around". That's librarian-ese for "I'm gonna spend money on more books". If anyone ever has a question about vikings, the eddas, or beowulf, call us--I'm sure we could answer them because we have every book ever in print on those subjects! Love that man!
Anyway, I desperately wanted to sleep in today. You know how it is when you are so tired and your body just feels "heavy"? That was me this morning, but I got up and got my rolls rising and turkey washed up and salted, shoved my hand in that "business-end" of the turkey and got those disgusting giblets out. Mom wouldn't be happy, but I just can't bring myself to boil those things up and add them to the gravy. I'm hoping our meal is fabulous and we can go outside and enjoy the rest of the day. The weather this week is very un-Wisconsin, being in the upper 50-60 degrees, but I'm not complaining. One more thing to be thankful for on Thanksgiving!!!
And I am thankful, for so many things. We've been here six years now as of today, and time has gone by so fast. Our lives have changes so much in the amount of time we've been here--I just can't fathom what the future holds, but so thankful God is in control of that! Right now, I need to get better control of my livingroom, which has turned into "the-room-everyone-dumps-stuff-in" and get this house feeling tidy and homey for the long weekend. Before I know it, it will be time to get things ship-shape for another busy school and work week, a week of leftover dinners(!) and so today, I will savor that turkey and stuffing, and I will savor the time with my family!