Five Brown Kids

We are busy like crazy here.  Working out, fixing stuff, refinishing stuff, tearing out stuff.  You should see my house!  Dr. Death wore his outfit for exactly three minutes and then ripped it off.  He was that happy about it.  Patient Debbie survived her overdose of propofol. Custodian Pete did I nice job cleaning up after it all.  Happy Halloween!  

That about sums it up! Happy Fifth Birthday Cutie!

This makes the perfect after school snack. 1 1/2 cups flour (1/2 whole wheat) 3/4 cup brown sugar 1 tsp salt 1/2 cup raisins (I didn't use these - would have had a revolt on my hands!) 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 cup melted butter 1 cup cooked oatmeal 1 beaten egg 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk 1 cup applesauce Toss dry ingredients. Stir in melted butter, egg, applesauce and oatmeal.  Blend well.  Spread in a greased 9x9 pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Cut and cool.

We've had a fun time crossing off most of the items on our bucket list.   (Except for the dentist - I'll spare you the picture of Jaxon's mouth after getting two teeth pulled.  Ouch!  The tooth fairy was very generous to compensate for the pain.) This bike extension for Scotia was brilliant and pretty cheap, considering.  I love to bike (faster than crawl speed) and this makes it possible. Jax and I have gone running a few times. I have an almost four mile route and he kicks my butt.  He's home sipping ice water on the couch before I catch up to him.  How does a seven year old do that???  (The only thing I like better than sport socks in sandals is when he wears these soccer socks.  Even better when he matches this pink tie dyed Krispy Kreme run shirt with blue and red plaid shorts.  I veto that.  Have to draw the line somewhere!) We biked on a greenway that ended up on Hillsborough St across from NC State.  When we pulled ...

I've burnt more than a few pots of rice on the stove but this method is fool proof. Add 2 cups of brown rice and four cups of water in a covered pyrex bowl.  Bake at 350 for one hour or until the water is gone. It doesn't mind sitting for awhile, so when I have a moment during the day I stick it in the oven with the 'Cook Time' on for one hour.  And then I get to it when I get to it.   If I'm making salmon or chicken I'll put the rice in first and add the meat to cook for the last half hour.

We are just plugging along over here.  If the first year of anesthesia school was like solitary confinement then the second year is like house arrest.  We can totally handle it.  We had one weekend a few weeks ago with soccer games and family outings and regular life with dad around that was wonderful. It was as good as any weekend I would hope to have once Tyrone is done. Taye is sick this weekend.  Has the flu of the week from his fifth grade class.  He was so miserable yesterday he didn't even want to watch TV.  That's sick!  I saw during the day that Scotia had set Bear on his pillow.  A little while later Taye was tucked in with Bear and fast asleep.  The dress Bear had been wearing had been unceremoniously dumped on the floor.  I anticipated that! The burden/challenge of keeping the money flowing for this second year is definitely getting heavier.  And I'm hitting a wall of exhaustion each afternoon that some days is hard ...